Wicked Hearts
by vorvol
Summary: The tale of Adaar and Sera's happily ever after is slow, sweet, and smutty. (AKA: a rewriting of the Sera romance with a witty, sarcastic Adaar, because I think the romance could have been better.)
1. High Dragons And Butts

Okay, this is going to be one long story, so the first chapter is just a filler to define character interactions and stuff. The real plot begins in chapter 2, where the real fun will begin. THIS IS ONLY A FILLER. Okay, thanks for reading this and enjoy.

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><p>The faint smell of the tavern's mediocre food and drinks is a welcome change from the scent of horses from days on the road with shitty mattresses and even shittier heat insulation. Swigging the first taste of alcohol she's had in much too long, Sera carefully eyes Adaar's horns, it's base protruding from the front of her head, arcing back, decorated with clasps of iron before curving upwards into sharp points. "So, this is it, huh?"<p>

Adaar smirks and gestures to the bartender for another drink. "I hope I'm not disappointing you, Sera. It would be a shame if I ruined those fantasies of yours, ones you probably got from reading too many Tal-Vashoth romance novels."

"First, I don't read no shitty romance novels. And disappoint? Nah, I mean..." For a split second, a predatory smile surfaces on the elf's lips. "Woof. You've even got the sharp horns and white hair."

"Yep, you've been reading shitty Tal-Vashoth romance novels." Adaar dismissively waves her hand, creating a tube of ice that drops into Sera's drink. "Noticed you sweating. Thought you'd like some ice."

"Sweet."

"You're a weird elf, you know that?"

Sera laughs and downs the rest of the alcohol in her glass. "You think? Maybe I should walk around barefoot and whine more."

She looks around exaggeratedly like an actress in an Orlesian spy play. "Heh, don't let Solas hear you say that. But really, I knew being big and gray and scarred with big horns would get me a rep in the mercenary business, but this?" Adaar comically gestures towards herself and grins. "This is the first time a girl's been impressed by all this."

Sera giggles and takes a drink. "Hey, I can't help liking tall ladies. Never thought I'd say this about a mage, though."

Adaar scoffs playfully. "You wound me, Sera. Magic's not all about sacrificing slaves and raising dead people to life. I noticed how your face turned white as a sheet during that battle with a mage in the Hinterlands."

"Well, excuse me for being afraid of something I've been told to fear my whole life, yeah?" Sera crosses her arms in mock defiance.  
>A metaphorical light bulb lights up inside the qunari's head and she stands up and offers Sera her hand. "Come with me then." She beckons, with a glint of trouble in her eyes.<p>

Sera takes the hand that seems giant compared to her's and lets the taller woman help her up. "What, you're going to take me on a romantic stroll where you do impressive magic shit to show me the wonders of magic or something? Who's been reading shitty novels now?"

"Close enough. And the drinks are on me," Adaar says, reaching for a few pieces of gold in her pocket before she sets it by the counter. "Turns out the breeches you stole did make some good money after all."

* * *

><p>"So, tell me why we're hiding in a tent and watching-"<p>

"Shhhh," Adaar clasps her hand on Sera's mouth. "Just watch."

Through a slit in one of the soldiers' tents, the two silently watch Cassandra obliterate training dummy after training dummy. The Seeker is breathing harder than she should be. Her strikes don't hit as hard as they usually do. After a few seconds of catching her breath, Cassandra pulls her head back in preparation of what seems like a big, nasty sneeze.

The corners of Adaar's lips turn upwards. "Watch."

And Sera did watch as Cassandra let out a sneeze so fierce that the muscular woman jumps from the force. A rush of flame pushes from her lips and onto the training dummy. Cassandra lets out a surprised noise as the dummy catches before she kicks the dummy down and begins to frantically curse under her breath, rolling the dummy on the snow.

The elf and qunari are both equally grateful for the clamor the soldiers are making while they're practicing, or else their stifled laughs and snorts would have undoubtedly alerted the Seeker of their presence. It took only a few seconds before Cullen rushes towards the Seeker, who's panting above a charred dummy with diminishing embers.

"Cassandra, I smelled smoke! What happened?"

Cassandra turns towards Cullen, hair missed and looking more confused than neither Adaar nor Sera has ever seen. "I...I'm not sure."

"Was that dummy on-"

Cassandra's head pulls back again, and it takes every ounce of willpower for Adaar to bite her lips and stay quiet as she prepares for another burst of fire while Sera's using the mage's shoulder to muffle her cackles. Another forceful sneeze rips through and yet another burst of fire rushes from the short haired woman's lips to a spot dangerously close to Cullen's greaves.

"Cassandra, what the f-"

* * *

><p>Haven's workers stare incredulously at the pair as they lean on each other for support, laughing so hard that their cheeks are turning red.<p>

"I always thought she was scary, just like a high dragon, but that was-" Sera coughs and laughs some more into Adaar's shoulder.

Adaar wipes a tear from her eyes and takes a deep breath. It takes a few tries for her words to sound coherent. "Save it for later, the show isn't over. See Solas there? Find a place to hide."

"Alright, c'mere, you." Sera pulls the mage behind a stone wall that the qunari finds difficult to hide behind, due to her size. The elf picks up a pebble from the ground and peeks from behind her cover, spying Solas as he sits in his usual spot, reading a thick tome. She throws the pebble somewhere behind the bald mage.

Solas puts his book down and looks around. "Hello?" He asks, turning his head.

"Go go go." Sera grabs Adaar's hand and, with difficulty, pulls the qunari around the stone wall and into a ridiculously small wooden tool shed, all before Solas turns around and get back to his book.

The shed is small and the two are pressed together uncomfortably. Particles of dust swirl thickly, visible only thanks to the ray of light from a gap in the door. Adaar ignores the dust and whatever it is that's pushing uncomfortably against her ass, instead cockily looking down at the girl pressed directly to her chest. "A tool shed? How cliche."

Sera widens her eyes, feigning innocence. "How so, lady Herald?"

Adaar leans down and places her lips right on the elf's pointed ears. It's dark, but she swears she sees the tips of Sera's ears turn red with the lack of proximity between their bodies. "You know exactly what I'm talking about." She playfully whispers.

The elf, unwilling to be beaten so easily, leans into the qunari's ear and whispers back, "You'll have to buy me dinner first."  
>Adaar opens her mouth to utter a harmless flirt, then she hears the sound of Cassandra's voice. She opens the shed's door slightly for her and Sera to peek outside with a small creak.<p>

"I've heard that the talent for magic can blossom late, but breathing fire is very... unusual, to say the least." Solas mutters, rubbing his chin as he turns around to think.

Cassandra looks at him with almost pleading eyes. "Please, Solas, I-"

Solas turns around, and Cassandra's words are stuck in her throat. Sera is similarly too stunned for words. Solas' shiny bald head is a butt. A shiny, pale, round butt with freckles sprinkled on both it's ass cheeks. Cassandra stares in shock and rubs her eyes and her jaw is dropped like a moronic caveman.

Sera is too startled for words. In fact, she follows Cassandra's lead and rubs her eyes a few times for good measure before she drops into a silent laughter. "Balls, how'd you do that!?"

"Illusion magic is good for many, many things." Adaar says, raising her hands dramatically to emulate a magician who's successfully managed to do a difficult trick. And then it struck her. A tingle in her nose, a speck of dust in her nostrils, and the qunari pulls back her head and throws her head forward, massive horns and all, in an epic sneeze that seemed to shake the shed.

Sera and Adaar look at each other silently. A few seconds pass before the archer manages the courage to talk. "You don't think she heard you, right?"

They found the answer instantly when the shed door opens and they're met with a sharp pair of eyes and a sharper pair of cheekbones. "What are you doing here?"

"Shit."


	2. Skitter Skitter, Hairy Eyeball

Note that this takes place after a time skip. Enjoy and don't forget to RnR :)

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><p>The four women collectively sigh when Cassandra opens the door and they find that their room isn't as bad as they thought it would be. It was dim and small, but the two beds seemed cozy enough. It smelled slightly musky, but it's a bargain given the ridiculously low price they had to pay for their rooms. Vivienne had insisted on getting better rooms, reasoning that "Four women in a small room with two beds? That's outrageous."<p>

Of course, then the innkeeper informed them that all the other rooms had been taken.

A bow clatters on the inn room's old wooden floor. "Eugh," Sera scrunches up her face and pulls out a gunk of green _something_ from her hair, the first one out of the many more all over herself. "Why's it always gotta be demons, huh? Why can't it be bandits or some rich tit asshole?" She wipes down her front and moans. "Shite, I've even got them in _places_."

Cassandra looks at her, trying to hide her amusement at the green goo covering the elf from head to toe. "I could teach you some anti-magic techniques, if you'd like, Sera."

"Or you can just stand in front of me next time," Sera replies, fetching her towel from her pack. "And no offense, but I don't think I'm the shield and sword type."

"That, I can do." Cassandra chuckles.

Sera tip toes towards the bathroom with a towel over her shoulder and leaving a small trail of green goo behind. "I'm taking the bath first!"

The bathroom door shuts and Vivienne disapprovingly glares at the trail on the floor. "I hope she'll have the decency to clean that up, although I high doubt that will ever happen."

Adaar gives the Orlesian mage a glance before she flips to the next page of Tale Of The Champion. "Hmm," she simply responds.

"People are starting to talk, my dear, I hope you've noticed."

The qunari's brow furrows uncomfortably. "Is this about the tool shed incident?" Adaar half-heartedly says, her fingers tracing the page where Hawke valiantly hurls spell after spell at the hulking brute that was the Arishok, all to save the city of Kirkwall and her pirate lover.

Cassandra makes a disgusted noise at the memory.

Adaar groans, places a bookmark on her book, and closes it. "Andraste, Cassandra, I said I was sorry."

"The point is," Vivienne cuts off before a digression can interrupt her. "I honestly wonder why you, a clever and charismatic agent of this Inquisition, choose to associate with such a crass and uneducated individual."

Adaar sighs. She's too tired for this. Dealing with this Alexius, fighting demons and meeting this curious Dorian person is enough for a day, she thinks. Having grilled for her choice of company is not in her to-do list.

Vivienne sympathetically smiles at her fellow mage. She sits down next to the qunari and pats the taller woman's shoulder. "I'm not trying to give you a hard time, Adaar, but I've seen these things happen in the Game. Trust me when I say our enemies can use this information against you, should they find out. I advise you to not let this get out of hand."

"I appreciate it, Vivienne." Adaar smiles back awkwardly and murmurs, "I'll keep it in mind, although there's nothing going on between us. I'm not even warming her bed yet."

"Adaar!" Cassandra exclaims, red faced.

The qunari smirks and reaches for her copy of Tale of the Champion. "Ah, so that's what it takes to make our stoic Seeker's demeanor crumble?" Adaar flips to a random page in the book and clears her voice. "Isabela softly marks her Champion's smooth neck, the Fereldan's whimpers urging her to go further and trail her nimble fingers-"

"Adaar!" Cassandra interrupts, appalled. The Nevarran tries to salvage her pride, scowling to hide her flushed cheeks. "You made that up, I read the book and there was no such scene in it!"

"Well, Cassandra," Adaar stands up and slowly approaches the warrior with a sly smile. When her face is just inches away from the Seeker's, the mage slowly lifts up the book to Cassandra's face. "It's the extended version."

Cassandra's eyes widen and her jaw drops. Indeed, on the cover was written 'EXTENDED VERSION' in fine ink. "There's an extended version? I didn't know there was an extended version." She tries to grab the book, but the qunari holds the book just out of her reach.

"Oh no, you can't do that, I'm not done reading." Adaar teases.

"Where did you get that?!"

"From the author himself, of course." Adaar plops back down on her head and begins reading. "I'm sure you can get one too, if you-"

The bathroom door opens. Adaar turns her head, and the book in her hand falls with a thud on the old wooden floor. Clouds of steam escape the bathroom, and Sera's standing right there with nothing but a towel wrapped around her slim body. The first thing Adaar notices is that _damn_, the towel is small. It covers the archer from just over breasts to just below her ass and _hell_, the qunari doesn't think she'll be able to handle it if it was any shorter. She barely even handling it now. Sera's been called everything from 'child' and 'bony-assed twit' to 'flat-chested pisshat' for her pranks and more than occasional rudeness, but Adaar can plainly see those names are definitely not based on fact. She can see covered mounds of flesh underneath that damn towel and they're not very large, but she definitely likes what she sees.

Adaar's eyes trace the contours of the archer's defined shoulder and arm muscles that glint with slight moisture, developed through years and years of expert marksmanship and tavern scuffles. Then Sera bends down to take her clothes from her pack. The towel, already short to begin with, rides higher and higher up her creamy thighs and Adaar finds her mouth going dry.

She shakes her head when she realizes she's staring like a creep, but not before Sera turns around and does that mischievous laugh of hers. "Close your mouth, lady Herald. Andraste's hairy eyeball is watching. No impure thoughts!"

"It's not. A hairy eyeball." Cassandra says for the fifth time that month, gesturing to the symbol on her armor. "It's fire."

"Of course it's hair, she's ginger, isn't she?" Sera then stops and turns her head sideways. "Hey, from this angle it looks like her lady bits!"

Adaar, against her better judgment, tilts her head sideways and lets out a small chortle.

"Herah Adaar, this is precisely what I was talking about." Vivienne sighs.

"What?"

"Simply put, you have been doing ridiculously inappropriate things to impress-"

"Hey, don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Sera complains, pouting at the older woman.

"Sera, I sent the lizard back to your room."

Sera's blinks innocently. "Lizard, what lizard?"

Vivienne shrugs with all the grace of a player of the Game. "Don't play stupid, dear. I hope you don't plan on sleeping with your mouth open. Little six-legged Lizzie is heavily pregnant and she's looking for a nice, warm place to lay her eggs in. Skitter skitter skitter skitter."

Sera scowls in disgust. "Ew! That ain't really gonna happen, innit?" She looks pleadingly at Adaar.

Vivienne runs a set of wiggling fingers up Sera's bare arm. "Skitter skitter skitter-"

"Quit it, you hag!" Sera slaps away the mage's arm, getting only a smug and satisfied smirk in response.

Cassandra pinches the bridge of her nose. "Okay, stop it, both of you. You're giving me a headache."

"I don't know, Cassandra, I think it's quite funny." Adaar chuckles.

"Hey!" Sera objects.

"You should have seen it when I brought Solas and Sera to that elven ruin." Adaar shudders at the memory. "Be grateful I didn't take you along for that one."

After several colorfully worded protests and quick, witty rebuttal from a well spoken Vivienne, Cassandra sighs almost painfully and receives a pitiful look from Adaar. "Okay, stop it. Sera, put on some clothes and stop distracting the Herald."

Sera simply sticks out her and leaves for the bathroom with her clothes in hand.

* * *

><p>"At the moment, we know nothing about this Alexius other than that he is a Tevinter magister." Cassandra thinks out loud, stroking her chin in deep thought.<p>

"And he's apparently involved in a cult that's obsessed with me." Adaar comments, crossing her legs casually. "Too bad it's the 'we're going to kill you because reasons' cult and not the 'we love you and want your babies' type. Not that I'd like the latter, of course."

"Don't forget he's a arsebiscuit pissbag slaver who sent us home after all that trouble." Sera quips as she rests her chin on her hand. "Nooo, don't mind that we had to go through a shitting time magic fade thingy with demons jumping at us every damn second, you can just go home because my head's too far up my arse and I have slaves to shove my cod around to."

Adaar sniggered at the elf. "Maybe I should have brought presents. How rude of me."

"The only thing you should have given him is a good ol' flaming bag of dog shite."

Cassandra ignores this and turns to Adaar. "We should get back to Haven tomorrow and discuss things there, then. I will write to Leliana about this immediately."

Sera, seemingly appalled at the idea, stands up so fast that she nearly knocks her chair down. "No way, I'm itching to take this nug humper down." She turns to Adaar and beams smugly. "Come with me, I know someone here."

Vivienne gives the elf an unamused yet curious glance. "And what is it that you intend to do?"

"Nothing much," Sera fetches her quiver and bow. "Just looking for some information, yeah?"

Adaar reaches for the staff leaning by her bed and checks her pockets for health poultices, just in case. "Are we going to meet one of your 'friends'?"

"You know it," Sera winks. "Now hurry up before it's bed time for him."

* * *

><p>"The bakery, Sera?"<p>

"Yeah, they sell nice tarts here."

Adaar watches, puzzled, as Sera grabs a whole bunch of strawberry tarts and checks her pockets for two pieces of sovereigns once she reaches the counter. Adaar gives her a look. "You know you can just ask me out if you want to. No excuses about looking for information needed."

Sera takes the bag of tarts from the baker and starts walking out. "Do you want me to?"

"Perhaps." Adaar replies, with a shrug. Yes, she thinks, as they walk side by side to a dark, run down neighborhood that's seen better days.

"Too bad," Sera grins and confidently strides into one small alley after another. "Because we're here and it's almost bed time for my friend."

The smell is less than stellar, and there are old, crumbly wooden houses around which there's a small white dog running about with small children. One of them, a tan skinned and chestnut haired young boy no older than five, notices the pair approaching and smiles widely, displaying a row of buck teeth.

"Sera!" He laughs, running at full speed towards the elf.

Sera bends her knees and welcomes the hug with open arms, spinning the boy around before setting him down. "Tobias, you've gotten a lot bigger, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Tobias says, tightly holding on to the elven archer. After a few moments, he pulls back and notices the qunari giving him a friendly smile. "Phwoar, you're big."

"Hi to you too, kid." Adaar smiles, ruffling Tobias' hair. "Name's Adaar."

Tobias tilts his head innocently and a grin lights up his face. "Hey, Sera, is this your girlfriend?"

Adaar's voice catches in her throat. "I wish, but we're not there... Yet." She winks at the boy, trying to play it cool. But it was too late, the split second when her face flushed in embarrassment doesn't go unnoticed by Sera, who seems very pleased with herself.

"Well, you should go for it!" Tobias says, taking Adaar's large hands in his own. "She's really funny and pretty and she brings me cakes every time she visits!"

Sera facepalms. "Oh, yeah, the tarts!" She hands them to Tobias, who snatches the bag with the speed of a mabari hound. "It's strawberry, your favorite."

"Aw, thanks!"

Sera bends down and playfully pinches the boy's cheeks. "Share them with your mom and sister, yeah? Tell them it's a thanks for what I'm going to ask."

Tobias takes a huge bite out of a tart. "Anything you want to know, Sera!"

"You know that man in the funny red clothes? What do you know about him?"

Tobias swallows his bite and frowns. "He's mean, I don't like him. He makes Fiona do bad things for him, I don't like it because I like Fiona, she's a nice lady."

"What did he make her do?"

"I was in the stables when I heard. He makes her meet with bad people. There was this man in fancy clothes who came the other day to talk with Fiona, he had a really big nose and a bushy beard. Baron something, I forgot his name." Tobias clenches his fists and teeth. "I hate him. He hit my sister when all she did was look at him!"

Sera pulls him into a hug and strokes the boy's hair. "It's okay, Sera's going to get the bad man and kick him where it hurts. Don't be sad, okay?"

"Okay." The boy says, blinking away the tears that are starting to form in his eyes. "Promise me you'll get him."

"Promise." When Sera finally lets go, Tobias lets out a large yawn that shows his buck teeth and one missing tooth. "Sera's got to go now, Tobias, but we'll be back soon."

"Okay, come back soon!" Tobias says, and both Adaar and Sera wave goodbye to him as they walk back to the tavern.

* * *

><p>Sera sits own across from Adaar, a tankard of ale in hand. "Nothing like a drink to end the night, yeah?"<p>

Adaar nods in agreement and takes a long drink. The two drink in silence, finally getting a chance to rest their tired limbs after a whole day of fighting and traveling, before Adaar motions for the bartender to fill her empty tankard again. "It's been three months since you came, huh."

"Yeah, it's been fun here." Sera slightly slurs, rubbing her eyelids.

She laughs softly. "Fun for you, you're not the one who has to deal with all the yelling in the war room. Or this Herald bullshit." Adaar chuckles.

Sera giggles. "Well, sucks for you. I guess there's some arseheads in the Inquisition but I guess there's some good people there." She says, with a voice devoid of her usual abrasiveness. Adaar figures it's because of the lack of energy and slight inebriation, but she decides this Sera is charming in her own way, although the qunari won't trade the usual brusqueness of the elf for the world.

"Good people like me?" Adaar grins wryly.

"Don't let it go to your head, you twit." Sera jests. "It would suck if you became like big people."

"It's admirable, what you do." Adaar murmurs. "All those people who get stomped around must think of you as a hero."

Sera scoffs derisively and takes a long drink. "Yeah, I damn well wish." She stares at the bottom of her empty tankard. "Some of those ungrateful tits say I'm just some pickpocket with revenge fantasies, a wannabe hero!" She grips her tankard hard and slams it down. Looking down in shame, she slurs, "Shite, I'd never admit it but sometimes I think-... no, know that's all I am too. I'm just throwing beehives at people and stealing stuff while you're ending the war between shitheads in nightgowns who friggin throw fire and self righteous shitheads who polish their stupid helmets all day."

Silence. "Hey, remember when we were in that small town where villagers were low on supplies and starving? I was ready to get out of that hole and get to camp already, but then you knocked me by the horns and told me I was acting like an asshole again."

Sera crosses her arms stubbornly. "So what, I'm your moral alarm clock now?"

"Yes, and that's what the Inquisition needs." Adaar falls silent as a thought hits her. "And you've got potential, Sera. You could organize the Friends of Red Jenny and make it real. Hit'em where it hurts."

"You're pulling my leg, right?" Sera looks at Adaar like her horns had just fallen off and grown back again. "You're the one who has your stupid honey tongue charm shit, all I've got is arrows!"

"But the Jennies respect you."

Sera's the one who falls silent this time. Adaar can see the gears running in her head, turning and cranking like a well oiled machine. "...I don't wanna think about this right now. And can I ask you a question?" She asks in a bad attempt to change the topic.

Failing to notice the digression with her normally sharp wit dumbed down by the alcohol, Adaar simply nods.

"You don't have a lot of experience with girls, yeah?"

Adaar pauses. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, I can tell with all your virginal blushing earlier." The elf teases. "Anyway, don't think I don't see it when you go out of your way to do shite with me even though people give you the stink eye when you do that." She says this in a low voice.

Adaar raises her arms in surrender. "You've got me there."

"Can't imagine why girls don't come after you like bees to honey, honestly." Sera leans forward and slumps on the table, looking at the qunari with a playfulness in her eyes. "Like I said, you're well fit. Good with your head. Good with your mouth too."

Adaar snickers at the innuendo Sera may have said on purpose. But she can't tell and doesn't care, her head's already gone light and the alcohol's already loosened her lips. "'Big scary qunari mage' isn't usually in girls' to do lists, Sera. Except maybe yours."

"Hey, how can I help it? I like em tall, and you keep doing that acceptance thing that I'm not used to. Hell, humans don't like me 'cause I'm an elf, elves don't like me 'cause I'm not elfy, others don't like me 'cause I'm an asshole."

Sera takes a careless drink that accidentally sends a small splash of ale on her lips. A thought passes Adaar's mind: what it would feel like to kiss Sera's nice, pink lips, glossed with cheap tavern alcohol. But she pushes those thoughts down and instead stares down at her half empty tankard. "Aren't we all assholes sometimes?"

"Touché."

Weird, Adaar thinks. She would have never thought she'd end up here just four months ago, when she was just a Tal-Vashoth mercenary. "I'm not used to everything here. Not used to having a real cause to fight for, not used to having real people who bleed together with me," Adaar nervously fidgets with a buckle that holds a clasp of iron in place on her horn. "And not used to you too. In a good way, of course."

"What?"

Adaar immediately regrets saying it and self-consciously averts her gaze. "You'll have to get me drunker if you want me to explain something so embarrassing."

"Shit, I'm barely staying awake right now."

"Fucking demons took a lot out of us today." Adaar comments, finishing the last of her ale.

"I'll get you drunker next time, and I'm gonna hear whatever it is you were gonna say." Sera pauses. "...Buckles."

"...Buckles?"

"Buckles."

"You're giving me a pet name already?"

"Yes, and I'm not telling you what it means until you tell me what you were going to say earlier."

Adaar folds her arms on the table and lies down her heavy head on them. Her muscles are aching from all the walking and fighting and her eyelids are getting more and more difficult to stay open. She has a feeling she's going to really feel it tomorrow. "I'm too tired to go back upstairs."

"Me too, Buckles."

And they fall asleep right there.

* * *

><p>Review if you want them to kiss already ;)<p>

No, seriously, tell me when you want them to kiss. I literally have no idea, so help me out? Or else it'll probably happen in chapter 10 or so and I have a feeling most people aren't going to want to wait that long lol.


	3. That's What She Said

Take note that this takes place after another time skip.

EDIT: Edited out the mistake because I was a butt and didn't spellcheck.

Warning: Violence. Enjoy!

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><p>It starts off as a simple, usual job: taking down and interrogating a corrupt, rotten ass who did a heinous act that pissed off one person or another. In this case, said rotten ass is a man called Baron Fitzherberg, also known as one of Alexius' more prominent benefactors, according to Leliana's spies and the man whose name Leliana's spies managed to dig up from the information gained from Sera's 'friend'.<p>

It's as easy as this: on his way back from Redcliffe, Inquisition archers will lie in wait in the forest he will surely pass to reach his manor in a nearby hill. The spies will take out his closest bodyguards, and the foot soldiers will continue the ambush by taking out the ones the archers haven't taken out yet. From there, he will be taken back to Haven for interrogation.

The plan is done perfectly and the baron is in Haven's dungeon a mere few days after the Herald's arrival from Redcliffe. The dungeon's interrogation room is miserably dim, dank, and all around a very uncomfortable place to stay, especially for the baron who's down on his knees and chained to the ground. He's issued complaints about how his kneecaps hurt from the hard, stone floor, but Leliana hasn't done anything about it and she doesn't intend to.

The Nightingale splashes an ice cold bucket of water on the baron, ignoring his multitude of threats and swears. "Talk." The former chantry sister growls.

The baron shivers from the cold, but he isn't breaking. His fists clench and his eyes are still alive. He opts to spit at the red haired woman, who simply scowls at him in response to the new moisture on her boot.

"Heh, you're too kind, sister." Iron Bull steps forward and cracks his knuckles. He looks at Adaar, waiting for his signal.

"He's all yours, Bull." Adaar nonchalantly says. "I'm going out for some fresh air."

Iron Bull gives the baron a look that would give any normal man a reason to piss his pants. "You got it, boss."

Adaar breathes in the cold, crisp air of Haven. It smells like Flissa is making her usual stew in the tavern. Adaar sighs tiredly and thinks of how nice stew would be in this cold weather. She kicks a patch of snow away in boredom when someone punches her lightly on the shoulder.

"Something wrong, big girl?"

"Hey." Adaar says, giving the smaller girl a light punch on the shoulder in return. "Didn't see you there, Sera. And yeah, Baron 'Stache isn't cracking. Maybe I should light that mustache of his on fire so he'll talk?"

"You keep saying stuff like that and people won't stop being scared of you." Sera teases, poking the large qunari in her stomach. The large woman gives a surprised laugh and recoils violently in a comical manner for someone of her size. Slowly, an ear-to-ear grin takes over the elf's face. "No freakin' way, the scary , big, horny mage is ticklish!"

Adaar slowly backs away from the elf, who's approaching her with nimble fingers ominously wriggling about. She considers objecting about the horny part, but she reckons she has more pressing issues to deal with. "Now, now, Sera... Don't do anything-"

Sera lunges forward with speed that catches Adaar off guard. Before she can fathom what's happening, Sera's fingers are at her sides and Adaar can't make a single word sound legible with the combination of screaming, laughing and gasping that's escaping her mouth. "S-Stop! Please!" She manages to choke out as she tries to pry Sera's hands away. It's useless, the archer's hands are too fast and they retreat before Adaar's large ones can grab them, finding their way back to some other sensitive part of her gut before she tries to pry them away with the same result. The sound of Adaar's booming laughs and pleads draws many strange looks from Haven's workers, but the qunari doesn't care how ridiculous she looks so long as she can breathe again. In an effort to shake off the blonde, Adaar manages to think fast and tackle Sera by the shoulders. Hope flutters in Adaar's chest when she and Sera tumble down to the ground, but her glory is short lived; just before they reach the ground, Sera flips Adaar over and they fall into a cushioned pile on the white blanket of snow.

"Shit." Adaar mutters, when she opens her eyes and finds the archer sitting contently on her hips. Thoughts rush through the qunari's head, most of them not very child-friendly.

"That's right, Buckles." Sera husks leans down so much that their noses are almost touching. Adaar holds her breath and gulps, face growing hot. "You're mine." And then Sera prepares for another assault on Adaar's gut when they both hear a throat being cleared.

They turn their heads and find Cassandra standing alone, averting her gaze. "I thought you were interrogating our prisoner, Adaar?"

Adaar's about to reply when the dungeon door slams open and the three of them jump in surprise. Cassandra readies her sword, Sera quickly jumps off Adaar's hips and aims, and Adaar crystalizes shards of ice to hurl at the escaped prisoner.

The man standing in the doorway isn't the baron; it's Iron Bull, knuckles bloodied and face twisted into a rage that would send even the most fearless soldier running for retreat.

Adaar lowers her hands and sighs in relief. The months she's spent with the Inquisition has kept her on edge for just about everything from rogue templars to rebel mages and she honestly needs a nice, long drink to calm down. "No luck either, Bull?"

"Sorry, boss," Bull stomps right past the trio without so much as a glance. "You're on your own with this asshole." And he leaves for the tavern, muttering a string of curses in Qunlat that almost makes Adaar cringe. Almost. The many evenings the she's been spending with Sera has left her able to spout more curses than a pirate.

Adaar turns to Cassandra and sighs. "Well, I guess I really am going to have to set the baron's mustache on fire."

"Perhaps I should handle it?" Cassandra balls her fist resolutely and narrows her eyes. "I am not one to turn to violence so quickly, but I can be very persuasive if I so desire."

Adaar holds in a laugh. "If you mean you're going to punch him into submission like you almost did to me all those months ago, then you're going to be severely disappointed. Bull tried and he failed."

"No need to punch around, ladies." Sera intervenes, standing between the two. "As much as I like seeing a well fit warrior beating the shit out of noble pricks, I've got a better idea."

Cassandra ignores the 'well fit' part and looks at the elf skeptically. "And this idea is...?"

Sera smirks. "Get me some honey and a beehive."

* * *

><p>"I must say, Sera, we should have you interrogate our prisoners more often." Cassandra says, the disbelief evident in her impressed tone.<p>

"I know, right?" Sera says, puffing out her chest proudly. "Nothing some bees and honey can't solve."

"You could give the Carta's thugs a run for their money, Buttercup." Varric chuckles and walks with long strides to make up for his short legs. The forest's wet uphill trail isn't making it easy for the dwarf, who's sweating and breathing hard. "Crap, with a simple fetch operation, you'd think we could just get some scouts to get the package."

From the top of the hill, Sera pokes out her head from above a thick bush and yells, "Hey! I think I found 'Stache's stash!" She giggles at her own horrible pun, gaining a groan from both Varric and Cassandra.

Adaar uses her staff to help her hike up a steep step and sighs in relief when she realizes she's finally there. "You've been waiting to say that, haven't you?"

Just as Cassandra and Varric are reaching the top of the hill, Adaar grazes her palm on the bark of an old tree with thick branches and rich emerald leaves. With the collection of dense plants and trees, Adaar doubts that even heavy rain could penetrate to the ground below. The one lone hole in the middle of it's trunk is just the perfect height for anyone to peer in. Sera sticks out her tongue at the qunari and sticks her hand into the hole.

"Buttercup!" Varric, still gasping from the climb, exclaims with a fretful edge in his tone. "You know bad things happen when you stick your hand in holes like that."

Sera laughs perversely and winks at Adaar. "That's what he said."

Adaar gives the elf an amused chuckle. "You'd better be glad life doesn't follow the rules of horror novels, Sera. You'd be the first one dead if it did."

The archer pulls out her hand, a simple locked metal box the size of a dinner plate in her hands. She raises it up like a treasure stolen from a dragon's cave. "Guess what, Buckles? Nothing bad happened."

"Yet." Cassandra deadpans.

Varric crosses his arms and grins. "'Buckles', huh?"

"Having a pet name like that doesn't bode well for my 'scary qunari mage, i will destroy you' image, doesn't it?" Adaar complains in mock disgust.

"Nope, but it does bode well for your 'protagonist of Varric's next novel' image."

"Aw, don't be such a Negative Nelly, Cass." Sera gingerly pulls out a lock pick from her pocket and starts working. "That attitude's got to be why- I got it!"

Adaar, Cassandra and Varric all gather over the elf and the box and watch intently as Sera flips the box open and pulls out a single scrap of paper. On it, only two words are written in a crisp and educated hand:

_I win. _

"Piss." Sera swears, and an arrow hisses through the air and cleanly pierces through the tendons of her calf with a sickening sound. Before she falls to the ground, the elf reaches for the hole in the tree and uses it to hoist herself up. She hisses in pain; feeling her torn muscles burn with every effort to stand up with both legs.

Adaar casts a barrier spell and instinctively stands between the injured archer and the source of the arrow. She gives her staff a swing and launches a wild ball of flame at the spot in front of her. _Plants, flammable. Flush them out with fire. Can't take too long or we'll get overwhelmed._ She thinks. She points the blade of her staff outwards, prepared for a close-quarters confrontation.

Cassandra stoutly stands with her shield up, sword gripped tight. Varric wisely positions himself beside the Seeker with his finger ready to pull Bianca's trigger. Sera tries to ignore the liquid steadily oozing from her wound, shakily holding a bow and arrow in preparation for a shot, not that it would be possible to do that with her allies standing protectively around her. But she _hates_ standing there, defenseless, so she does it anyway.

Smoke trails out of the spot where Adaar cast her fireball. A rustle. Varric aims and releases his bolt within a millisecond, pleased when he hears a grunt of pain. He doesn't remain pleased for long; two warriors wielding shields walk out of the bushes.

"Go, Cassandra." Adaar says, staff clenched tightly in her hands. "We'll cover you."

Cassandra nods and charges at an alarming speed towards the closest warrior. Adaar slams her staff into the ground and ice climbs steadily up the first warrior's legs, effectively planting him in place. Cassandra sidesteps into a position where his shield can't protect him, and parries a wild strike the warrior swings in a desperate try to keep the Seeker away. Varric shoots a steady amount of bolts at the second warrior to stop him from closing in and flanking Cassandra and Adaar sweeps her staff to create arcs of lightning that travel and paralyze the first warrior, then the next. The first warrior's eyes bulge in terror as the Nevarran's sword effortlessly slice through his gut and blood spills on the ice at his feet.

Adaar and Varric prepare for a ranged assault on the last warrior before a rogue jumps out, daggers aimed at Adaar's throat. Sera swears and manages to make a sloppy shot that misses the rogue by an inch, her balance less than stellar with only one leg for her to keep her footing with. But it turns out that a missed shot is all it takes for the rogue to lose his stability, and Adaar takes the opportunity to jab the blade of her staff into his throat.

A light drizzle starts to fall. Cassandra is countering attack after attack and lunges forward for the kill. Another rogue jumps out from a nearby tree, landing behind the Nevarran, who hears the rustle behind her and prepares to hop away to find a more favorable position. But a bolt hits the rogue, then a shard of ice, and then a final arrow lands in his neck for good measure. Another extra bolt ends up in the warrior's unguarded foot, and Cassandra uses his slight falter to plunge a sword in his chest.

And the fight is over. "I'll search the bodies. You go look at Buttercup." Varric says to Adaar, and wastes no time in rolling over a dead rogue and checking his pockets. Cassandra sheathes her sword and steadies her breath before following the merchant.

The adrenaline starts to fade and Sera feels everything, from the blood that leaks out with every second to the sting of the sweat that enters the wound. She finally lets herself fall to the ground and grunts when the thud only seems to make every nerve in said wound burn hotter. A stream of curses flow out from her mouth like water escaping a broken dam.

Adaar rushes to her side and brushes stray locks of hair from Sera's face. "Sera, Sera, calm down." The qunari says, grabbing the elf's shoulders to make her stay still.

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down!" Sera hisses, gripping the grass below in pain. "This shite hurts!"

"Shhh, shhh." Adaar gives her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'm going to have to take it out, Sera."

"What?! Fuck, this already hurts enough as it is, Buckles! Shit!" Sera breathes, her shaking hands trying to pry Adaar's large ones from her shoulders.

"Sera, calm down." Adaar slowly says. "Look at me." Sera does, and bites her lip to stand the hurt. "Our camp's too far away to wait for medics and a stretcher. We can't bring you there like this or else you'll get infected or the movement will make the arrow move around and hurt worse."

Sera looks down, at her wound, caked with an unpleasant combination of blood and mud. "Okay, fine, just don't make it hurt more than it should, Buckles."

Adaar nods and turns to Cassandra. "Cassandra, can you find a strip of cloth?"

"I think I can." She replies, before she rips open the shirt of a dead rogue. She takes it off the corpse and turns it over to a side where it isn't either bloody, muddy, or both. A few yanks is all it takes for the woman to come up with two decent sized strips that she immediately delivers to the Herald.

Adaar unsheathes a pocket knife that she always keeps in her coat. Cassandra folds the first strip of cloth into a nice, cylinder shaped shape.

"This is going to hurt, Sera." The Seeker says, putting the strip of cloth within Sera's biting distance.

"That's what she said." The archer manages to jest, whimpering before she takes the strip between her teeth.

Adaar holds one end of the arrow in her hand, her other one placing the knife right over the other end. Her hands are shaking too much. Sighing, she turns to Cassandra and hands her the knife. "Can you handle this one for me?"

Cassandra just nods and takes the knife, kneeling before the elf and taking one end of the arrow in her armored hand. Adaar takes Sera's quivering hand in her own and gives her a reassuring look. Sera grins, even with the cloth in her mouth, and that's when Cassandra brings the knife down and it cuts through the wood. Even with the Seeker's tight grip, the arrow twitches in the wound and Sera bites down and yells a muffled sound of pain, gripping Adaar's hand hard.

When Cassandra sees Sera's grimace finally disappear, she asks, "Shall I pull it out now?"

Sera nods and mutters something like "Best get it over with." and she feels a strong arm slowly wriggle the arrow out. She bites down again and clasps Adaar's hand tight. She can feel new tears form in her ripped sinews as the arrow is slowly pushed and squirmed out. She screams into the cloth, digs her fingernails against the calloused flesh of Adaar's palm, and tries to blink away the tears that are slowly trying to trail down the corners of her eyes. Adaar softly strokes away the beads of sweat that are starting to drip down Sera's forehead, and when the arrow is finally out, blood runs freely from both holes in the blonde's calf. Sera releases the breath she doesn't realize she's been holding and spits out the cloth.

"That hurt." She mutters, finally loosening her grip from Adaar's hand, where deep marks from her nails are starting to bloom.

"Come on, I'll carry you back." Adaar says, before her previously distressed face gives way to a lighthearted smile. "Or do you want me to kiss it better before we go?"

* * *

><p>Once Adaar wraps some cloth around the wound, it takes some time to get Sera on Adaar's shoulders. It's a long walk back to camp, but having Sera ride on Adaar's shoulders makes the trip significantly less excruciatingly slow.<p>

"Giddy up." Sera chortles, giving Adaar's side a small kick like a knight and her horse. Her big, horned, gray horse who casts magic spells and has a surprising talent for sarcasm and wit. The qunari makes her best effort at neighing and fails miserably, making a sound akin to a dying nug instead. Then Sera grabs her horns like a steering wheel and Adaar makes an abrupt stop, and the elf is glad she's holding her horns or else she would have lost her balance. "What wrong, Buckles?"

Adaar falls silent for a while. "Sorry, Sera, but please don't grab my horns."

"What? Are they ticklish or somethin'?" Sera giggles and starts tickling Adaar's horns. This, of course, doesn't make the qunari laugh.

The mage lowers her head in embarrassment. She clenches her fists. "No, just... I'll tell you later. But could you just not touch them now? It's uncomfortable."

Sera just lets go and glances at Varric and Cassandra, who are both giving her clueless looks that indicate they have no idea either. It really was weird for the humorous qunari to say something that isn't meant to be taken humorously, or for Sera's case, flirtatiously _and_ humorously.

The walk back to camp is uneventful. Varric tells a story about the time Hawke's brother lost to this sweet, innocent Dalish elf in a drinking contest and Cassandra makes a few quips here and there. Sera occasionally brushes away a few of Adaar's white locks that fall out of place. When they're back at camp, Cassandra calls for a medic to put some disinfectant on Sera's leg, a process that takes a while because the elf keeps shouting obscenities and pulling her leg in reaction to the sting.

Adaar enters the tent just as the medic shuffles out, giving a nod of thanks before she sits by Sera's mattress. "Can I see your leg?"

Sera smirks, but the fatigue is apparent in her pale face. "Oh, scandalous."

"Saucy." Adaar smirks back and scoots closer. She gently takes Sera's leg onto her lap and stretches out her palm over it.

"Wait." Sera jerks her leg back and winces at the pain.

"It's just healing magic, Sera." Adaar says, carefully moving the leg back on her lap. "I know I kinda suck at it, but I'm not going to make demons crawl out of that hole in your leg."

Sera lies her head back on the shitty, hard pillow. "Fine then, just don't set my leg on fire, yeah?"

"Don't worry, I'm just going to give your leg a homoerotic caress at most."

Sera giggles. A soft, green glow emanates from Adaar's hand that feels warm and strangely comforting on the elf's injury. She can feel the torn fibers of her leg slowly come together and close it's rips slowly but surely.

"A story to pass the time?" Adaar offers.

Sera nods.

"I think it was around ten years ago when I escaped from the Qun." Adaar starts. "I was a zit faced teenager then, and they didn't like it when I started screaming in my sleep and burning stuff with my bare hands."

"Do the qunari have Circles?"

Adaar chuckles. "Hell, no. If you were a mage, they'd handcuff you, cut your horns off, and turn you into some kind of glorified slave owned by a 'worthy warrior', an _Arvaraad_. If you're too dangerous or disobey the hundred or so rules they have for mages there, they cut your tongue out and sew your mouth shut."

"That would be shitty," Sera comments and chuckles. "You wouldn't be able to do your honey tongue thing, woo the ladies, if it's been cut off, yeah?"

"And I wouldn't be able to sweet talk you." The qunari jokes. "As you can see, they really don't like mages. They even have a name for us. _Saarebas_. 'Dangerous thing'. I was an _Aquna-flak _in training, a female warrior of the Qun, then I fucked up and got a vivid dream from a demon one night and nearly burned my quarters down in my sleep."

"You've got to admit that sounds scary." Sera shudders. "Ugh."

"Then they chained me to a wall. Hands, feet, and horns. They told me I was too dangerous with my talent for destructive magic, and said I wasn't ever going to be _Aquna-flak_ because I was _Saarebas_. Dangerous thing. They put buckles on my horns and clasped them with iron, it's what they do in preparation for the de-horning."

Sera's eyes widen in surprise. "So the buckles on your horns..."

Adaar nods. "Yeah, they're the same ones. Then I got scared. I didn't want to be a slave. I had a smart mouth and I still wanted to use it. So I escaped. Melted the chains away."

"Just like that?" Sera raises her eyebrow suspiciously.

"No." Adaar looks away.

Sera sits up and puts a hand to her ear. "What is it? Here, whisper your dirty little secret."

Adaar faintly smiles and leans forward. She whispers in the elf's ear, "I used blood magic."

Sera tenses and pulls away. "_What_? Shit. Shit. No." She looks at Adaar's hand, still glowing with magic as it repairs the hole in her leg.

Adaar doesn't reply, instead focusing on the healing spell. "I'm sorry, I know you're not the biggest fan of magic, but I had to tell you."

Sera just looks at the mage for a while. It's no secret that she doesn't like mages, not with their scary magic and demons and things she doesn't understand. She swallows and sighs. But this is _Buckles_. _Her_ Buckles. Her Buckles isn't like the rest, she knows it and she'd give a flaming bag of nug shit to anyone who says otherwise.

"Don't be." Sera interrupts and tilts up Adaar's chin. "Look at me, Buckles." She does. "I don't like magic. I _hate_ blood magic. It's bloody scary and I'd better not see you use it, and I don't know why I'm saying this because I would put an arrow in your face if you were anyone else, but it's not as bad because it's you. I've been following you around and staring at your arse for months. I know you're not like those bloody Tevinter arseholes. You won't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it, yeah?"

Adaar brings her hand up to the fingers tilting up her chin and strokes the back of Sera's hand with her thumb. "Yeah. And Sera?"

"What? Gonna profess your love to me now?"

"No." Adaar grins and finishes the healing spell. She didn't do a very good just, seeing at the wound is still gaping, but Sera appreciates it nonetheless. "But would you like me to kiss it better again?"

* * *

><p>So, readers, what would you like? More fluff or more angst? Who do you want to crack and kiss the other first, IF that's going to happen? Do you want more battle scenes or should I just skip them?<p>

Leave it in the reviews ;). And yeah, the answers I receive will affect the story, so come at me.


	4. Big Damn Hero

Unlike all the previous chapters, this one does not take place after a time skip. Enjoy.

* * *

><p>It's embarrassing for Adaar to admit, but healing magic is not her forte. She did little for Sera's wound, and the qunari feels like a <em>Karasaad<em> who has gone to battle and forgotten his sword when the medic informs them that the arrow had pierced bone and the elf has to use a crutch and have plenty of bed rest for a few weeks. In short, her healing spell was not effective. At all.

When Adaar is in Haven, she makes frequent visits and entertains Sera with tales of things she did during her travels without the archer. When she's gone, most of Sera's days consist of playing small pranks to piss people off and having drinking contests with Bull and his Chargers. When she can't do any of those things, she finds whoever else she can talk to. She'll never admit it, but it's refreshing to get to know some of the Inquisition's agents better. In just a week, she's found out that Krem has a very good taste in liquor and that Cullen is a very competent chess player. Or maybe she just sucks at chess. She also finds out that Blackwall combs his beard twice day. Mostly, she stays away from Solas and Vivienne. She has never liked the elf and she just can't ever manage to talk to the Orlesian without sounding stupid.

Which is why she's surprised when she wakes up one morning and sees Solas sitting beside her bed. Sera shakes her head to make sure she's not dreaming. Then she jerks back her leg when she sees that the bald elf is doing something to it. "What are you doing here?! Watching me sleep and-"

"Whoa, whoa." Adaar interrupts, suddenly bolting to her side. "I thought I'd ask Solas to do some healing spells on you to help you get on your feet sooner." Then she coughs self-consciously. "You know, since I suck at it."

"Well, you could have woken me up first and _asked_." Sera shudders at the thought of having magic performed of her while she was sleeping. Or awake. Or by anyone who wasn't Adaar.

"I would have, but it's nearly noon and some of us don't have all day." Adaar hands the elf a glass of water and affectionately ruffles her messy hair. "Out drinking with the Chargers again last night?"

Sera nods and brings the glass to her lips, feeling the water rush down and make the taste of the alcohol from last night more tolerable. She didn't have that much to drink, fortunately, and she now has a pleasure of a nice almost-noon without a nasty hangover. She's just about to complain about Solas' presence when she sees Adaar look pleadingly at her. Sera sighs and decides she's going to hold her tongue. For now. She's wary when Solas hesitantly goes back to doing his healing magic on her leg, but she lets him be.

"Come," Solas curtly says, beckoning the qunari to sit on the chair beside his. "Let me show you how it's done."

Adaar nods and makes a mental note to do the mage a favor later. He's not outwardly against it, but the horned mage can see that he's uncomfortable with being in the same room as Sera, and for a very good reason: every time they're together, it's an endless stream of mocking that's mostly coming from the female elf.

When she sits down, Solas removes his hand and the warmth of green energy leaves Sera's skin, replaced by a much less powerful one from Adaar's hand. "Your mind is chaotic, which explains why it is you have such an affinity for the more destructive forms of magic." Solas comments. "And it also explains why your healing spells are not very effective. Healing magic demands that the caster's emotions be calm, caring, nurturing."

"Thanks, Solas, I know I suck." Adaar grins and points at the mutitude of scars that mark her face. "If I was good at it, then I wouldn't have all this."

"I sense that you are growing discouraged." Solas smiles back with a contentness in his eyes that's always present when he's discussing magic. Then his smile grows stiff. "Don't be. In fact, I think _this_ will make it easier for you."

"...'This'?"

"Ah," Solas fidgets with the hem of his shirt nervously. "I hear that you two are... close. It should be easier to access... nice thoughts when one is healing someone... close, is it not?" He says, trying to mask the slight disapproval in his tone.

"I suppose it should be." Adaar mutters, mind focused on the spell that's definitely not getting more powerful. _Nice thoughts_, she thinks. _Think nice thoughts_. A frown starts to form on the qunari's face when she finds that the more she tries to concentrate, the more she can't. "Drat."

"It takes time, of course." Solas says, taking Adaar's hand down gently. "Do not be distressed, my friend. I have done what I can and Sera should be able to walk normally in roughly a week."

"A week?" Sera asks, disbelievingly. "No way, they said it would take at least a month!"

"Take a look at your wound again." Solas says, looking quite pleased. And Sera does; the gaping hole has narrowed substantially and she can barely see even a hint of exposed flesh. The throb she feels is lessened and it's barely noticable compared to the head-pounding pain she had a week ago. "I will take my leave now." He stands up hastily and gives a nod to both the women.

"Thanks for teaching me to suck less, even though I still suck." Adaar pats his shoulder.

Solas chuckles. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Adaar, these things take time." He replies and turns around towards the door.

Sera clutches her bedsheets and bites her lip, forcing herself to look at the back of the bald elf's head. "Hey, egghead!"

The mage turns his head and sighs, fully prepared to ignore whatever rude thing that will surely come out from the city elf's mouth. "Yes?"

"Thanks." Sera says, her voice sounding embarrassingly choked.

Solas freezes in shock for a moment but he later replies with a small smile. "You're welcome." He opens the door and looks back at Adaar with a disbelieving face before shutting the door quietly.

"Does that mean you two won't give me a splitting headache whenever I take you out together again?" Adaar chuckles and sits on the edge of the elf's bed, which creaks under the weight of the large woman.

"Do you wanna find out?"

"Hell no." Adaar groans like a dying cow and holds her head with both hands. "That trip was the literal worst and I don't intend on repeating it again. Ever."

"Fair enough." Sera shrugs, and raises an eyebrow amusedly. "Y'know, I hate his elfy this and magic that talk, but I'm no ungrateful tit."

"Great, then." Adaar clasps her hands together in made-up enthusiasm. "Next morning, I'll bring Vivienne here. You two could get along and become besties, maybe even decide to move in together with a pet nug for company."

Sera scrunches her nose in disgust. "Eugh, don't push it, may as well sleep in the barn, with all the pig shits and horse piss."

"I'm offended, Sera." Adaar pouts and crosses her arms. "You won't even consider staying with me? Or am I below pigs and horses now?"

"I said it before, and I'll say it again." Sera says, leaning forward. With her face just an inch just in front of Adaar's, she gives the qunari's nose a brief peck and pulls back. "You'll have to buy me dinner first."

It takes a few seconds for Adaar to find her voice. "I-It's noon," She sputters, epically failing her attempt at being smooth. "Does lunch count?"

"Nah, not normally." Sera drags out her vowels in mock coyness. "I'll make an exception this time, yeah?"

Adaar grins toothily and jumps out the bed with a force that makes the poor thing creak hard. "Then I'll be back with your food, milady." She forces out the grin and replaces it with a flirtatious smirk as she heads out of the door and to the kitchen.

Once she closes the door, the qunari does an enthusiastic fist pump and quietly mouths "Yes!" several times.

* * *

><p>A knock.<p>

Sera giggles in anticipation and briefly combs her short hair with her fingers. "Come in, Buckles."

The smile on Sera's face falls when it's not Adaar who comes in, but a willowy servant girl with braided blonde hair carrying a plate of strawberry tarts. "M-Miss Sera?" The servant timidly asks. "I have something for you. F-From the Herald."

The elf is disappointed that Adaar's not here, but who is she to refuse a treat? "Yeah, you can put it here." Sera says and motions to the table next to her bed.

The servant girl hurriedly shuffles and puts the plate of tarts on the table before she turns around, nearly hiting Sera in the face with her braid, and runs out of the room without even shutting the door. "Weirdo." Sera shrugs. "Didn't even get to thank 'er." She mutters to herself, as she picks up a tart and prepares to pop one in her mouth.

"I see someone's starting without me."

Sera puts the tart back down and grins. "There you are, Buckles. Well, if you didn't want me to start first then why didn't you bring these yourself?"

"Because desserts come after the appetizer and the main course, of course." Adaar chuckles and sits next to the elf. "It seems that I've got competition for the lady's affections."

"What are you prattling on about now?" Sera says, scooting aside to make room for the large woman to sit.

"I didn't send these, Sera." Adaar deadpans.

"But that servant girl said you sent it to me."

Silence falls over the room as the women both stare at each other dumbly. The silence is broken when a loud noise makes them jerk in surprise. Sera looks around for a weapon, frustrated with her inability to do so thanks to her limited mobility. Lightning crackles in Adaar's hand, pointed towards their intruder.

Leliana stands in the doorway with a dagger in hand, two guards by her side. "Tell me you didn't eat it." She walks towards the two women, raising her voice.

"I thought so." Adaar clicks her tongue in annoyance. She turns to the elf beside her and sighs. "Seems like pissing on those nobles' lawns finally came back to bite you in the ass, Sera."

"Shite," Sera swears under her breath. "Those tarts looked damn good too. Some arsehole's gonna get a mouth full of arrows for this."

Adaar looks at her oddly. "I take it this isn't the first time?"

Sera laughs so casually that the two guards by Leliana's side start sending each other strange looks. "Of course not. I piss on a lot of noble's lawns, Buckles, sometimes they try to stick pointy swords in me. It's happened before. Nothing weird 'bout people wanting to kill me. First time someone's tried to off me with poisoned cake, though. I'm honored."

"We need to have a discussion." Leliana sheathes her dagger and motions for a guard to throw the tarts away. She gives Sera a look that makes the blonde almost shiver. "The assassin is being apprehended as we speak. Tell me, who would want to kill you enough to send an assassin to the Inquisition's base?"

"Oh, you know, not much?" Sera unsurely replies.

"Unlikely." Adaar teases.

"You tit."

"I need to narrow down the list of suspects, ladies." Leliana taps her foot impatiently.

Sera gives it a few seconds of thought. "I do a lot of pissing people off but I cover my tracks good. Can't think of anyone who'd send assassins after me if they don't know I'm the one who put lizards in their knickers, yeah?"

"Strawberry tarts." Adaar flatly says. "They're similar to the ones we got in Redcliffe."

"Have you got something?" Leliana asks calmly.

"Leliana, correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't sell strawberry tarts here, do they?"

"No, they don't." Leliana raises her eyebrows questioningly. "Why do you ask?"

"I think they've been watching us since Redcliffe. Maybe even before." Adaar narrows her brows ominously. "Why else would they send Sera an insult by killing her with the same treat she got not too long ago?"

"That's stupid." Sera scowls. "What's the point of sending an insult if I didn't even get it, huh?"

"I think that's kind of the insult." Adaar grins and flicks the elf's forehead playfully. "Be careful from now on, okay?"

"I will send my people to look into this." Leliana turns around and walks towards the door. "Someone is playing with you. Only a fool would try to poison you when they can simply overpower you in this state."

Sera frowns. "Tell me when you know who it is. I'll stick that bastard full of arrows, I will."

"Don't worry," Leliana chuckles. "I will."

* * *

><p>Two plates of roast nugs arrive not more than five minutes later and Adaar watches in silent awe as Sera digs into her food with a ravenous hunger that shouldn't even exist in someone as small as she is. Except she isn't really that terribly small, she just looks like it in comparison to the qunari. Adaar chortles slightly at the sight of the smaller woman biting off chunks that are terrifyingly huge.<p>

Sera swallows a hunk of meat and pulls the bones away from her face, setting it down on her place. There's a small smear of sauce on her cheek. "What?"

"You'd make a good mabari." Adaar manages to say through her laughs. "Damn, what I'd pay to have a mabari with an appetite like yours. Those poor rogue templars won't stand a chance!"

Sera puts her empty plate on her bedside table and smirks mischievously. "Careful what you wish for, Buckles." She says, before she almost stealthily climbs onto the bed on all fours, slowly prowling the qunari like a quillback on a hunt. Her movements are limber and the hungry look in her eyes makes Adaar's heart thump fast. The elf licks her lips slowly.

"S-Sera?" Adaar asks with an uncharacteristic timidity. She tries to move back, but she realizes she has nowhere to go when her horns hit the wall behind her. She's trapped. "What are you doing?"

Sera pounces and snarls as she goes for Adaar's throat. The qunari tries to hold her back, and this is her first mistake. The elf's pointed fingers go for the gut and it's too late for Adaar to scream because the moment those fingers start moving, she laughs so loudly she's sure Flissa can hear her from downstairs. She laughs like a madman as Sera continues to make snarling mabari noises, pretending to bite into the mage's throat. The elf's teeth only tickle the qunari's throat and she guffaws harder.

But this time, luck is in Adaar's favor. She grabs Sera by the shoulders and the elf, with her leg not completely healed yet, is too slow to react. With a flip, the large qunari is above and she smirks in a way that shows how satisfied she is with herself as she pins both Sera's arms down. Leaning down to the elf's ear, she whispers, "Victory is mine."

Sera growls and snaps her teeth by Adaar's ear and the qunari pulls her head back by reflex. Adaar stares at the girl below her, trying to make sense of what just happened, and she laughs and lets go of her arms. Sera joins in and laughs until her stomach hurts before she wipes a tear from her eye and puts her hand on her stomach.

"It's been great, doing this Inquisition thing." Sera chuckles, looking at the plate of bones that have been picked clean on her table. "No stealing for food no more."

Sensing a story, Adaar scoots closer to the girl. "A sovereign for your thoughts?"

"Ever been so hungry and thirsty you could feel it in your bones?" Sera asks, her voice soft.

"I can't say I have. The qunari kept everyone well fed. My mercenary group was nice enough to not let a Tal-Vashoth teen starve."

Sera looks forward, her eyes blank. "First, your mouth grows dry. Your lips get so chapped and you try to wet them, but there ain't even spit in your mouth anymore. It feels like there's a friggin' hole in your stomach, sucking you in from the inside. You can feel your muscles failing, getting smaller every single damn day. Then you feel cold, even though it's the middle of summer. In the end, you just want to lie down and you can't get up because you feel so tired you could just sleep and die."

Adaar doesn't say anything. She knows Sera doesn't like being pitied. "So you started stealing."

"And never stopped." Sera grins, the softness in her voice gone. "Even after I got adopted, I kept stealin'. Old habits, huh?"

"Wait," Adaar scratches her head in confusion. "You were adopted?"

"Yeah, but the old sod died when I was thirteen." Sera sighs. It takes a moment before she perks up again. "Doesn't matter. I was already so good I could steal a ring from your finger. I met someone around that time, yeah? Reminds me of you."

"Someone?" Adaar asks, a little ball of jealousy beginning to well up in her chest. _A past lover_? She thinks to herself.

"The big warden." Sera puffs up her chest in imitation. "She was all big and strong and had that charisma. Shiny armor, sword and shield, this dufus lookin' guy with her. She gave me pie. Typical fairytale hero, huh?"

"What!?" Adaar shakes her head in disbelief. "You're telling me you met Warden Cousland, hero of Ferelden, and King Alistair?"

"Yeah, kinda reminds me of you, with the big damn hero thing you've got goin' on."

Adaar smiles wryly. "There's nothing 'big damn hero' about being a scary, big, qunari mage, Sera. I'd need to be all charming and have shining armor to do that, don't I?"

"Bullshit, you already are a big damn hero." Sera flicks the taller woman's nose. "Charming, minus the shining armor bit."

"Try saying that to people the next time I show up at a village. I'm sure they'll hear you over the sound of everyone running away."

"Then they've got to take their heads out of their arses." Sera pouts, poking a finger to Adaar's chest. "I know a hero when I see one. Don't need no stupid sword and shield or shiny warden armor to be one."

Adaar finds her cheeks growing hot. She images they must be red, or as red as her gray skin can turn, anyway. "Thanks, Sera. And I suppose you're the girl I'm supposed to get in the end? Slay the big bad villain, kiss the girl?"

Sera laughs it off, but Adaar can see her embarrassment in the redness creeping to her ears. _Cute_, Adaar thinks. She'll have to think of a way to make the elf more flustered some time, just to see those pointy ears get redder.

"You're a loony."

"You love it."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"Let's get a mabari."

"Great." Adaar says, ideas beginning to surface in her mind. "I'll name her after you. Ares? Rase?"

"Eugh, that's terrible." Sera giggles, teasing the woman. "You can bring her around, yeah? Give the damn villagers another reason to run from you. Then I can keep you for myself."

* * *

><p>If you want them to make out already press review.<p>

If you want them to get a mabari press review.

Press review because they affect what happens in future chapters. And if you want them to get a mabari, what should they call it? ;)


	5. Adorabloodthirsty

Thanks to you all for all the positive feedback! It's all really motivating, and thanks for all the Merry Christmas wishes. Merry (late) Christmas to you too and have a happy New Year!

This is my first time writing something so serious, so I hope I won't disappoint.

* * *

><p>Adaar doesn't expect it to come to this when she decides to confront Alexius.<p>

_It's not real. It's not real._ Adaar keeps repeating those desperate thoughts in her mind. _This is never going to happen, it's not happening._

But it's all too real. The shards of red lyrium emanating warm, malicious vibes are real. The corpses strewn around Redcliffe castle, left to rot, they're all real. The terrifyingly huge spider that dropped on her head when she walked through a webbed doorway? Much too real.

All those thoughts of "_It's not real_" completely vanish when she finds Cassandra. The Seeker's much thinner now and there's something not quite right in her voice. There are cracks on her skin and Adaar swears she can see red peering out from those cracks. But Cassandra is Cassandra, and she remains stout and strong despite how much smaller she seems, even after a year left to rot in that dank prison cell.

Uneasiness starts to stew in Adaar's stomach. If Cassandra's here, then that means _she's_ not too far away either. The qunari can't stop wondering if she's okay. She knows Sera hates being told to stay still, hates being without her arrows, hates being helpless. How has she been doing in a _prison_, of all places?

Adaar knows she has to find out sooner or later, and preferably sooner, but it still doesn't make it easier for her. When she opens that rotted wooden door, she considers closing her eyes so she won't have to see who's there, but she doesn't want to get caught off guard in case there are Venatori there. And then she hears it: low whispers, muttering words that she can't hear. She hears something about willows there and reckons it's one of those poems Sera recites from time to time.

She stops murmuring and lets out a sound of frustration. "No, no, no, that's not it. They can't take that away from you... stupid."

The qunari's feet are heavy and shaking as they bring her to the front of the cell. Sera's just sitting there, but Adaar heart drops to the pit of her stomach nonetheless. At first, Adaar just hopes it's a mere trick of the light, but she knows she's just trying to fool herself; Sera is deathly pale. Her blonde hair's has dulled to a washed-out and muted muted yellow over the past year. The bagging in her armor tells Adaar that she's grown so ghostly thin that the qunari thinks even a slight touch will make the sinister cracks in her skin grow and extend until it splits her open into little pieces that the larger woman won't be able to put back together.

The trio's footsteps alert the elf, who looks up, even though every movement she makes, every change of expression makes the insides of her skin prick and her joints protest with sharp pain. The red lyrium planted inside her makes everything hurt, makes her mind cloudy and foggy with henious songs, like a cancerous egg that's slowly taking over her from the inside. Her face is littered with fissures that line her face like a collection of fiendish spiderwebs and there's a dying red glow in her pupils that taint her previously clear caramel eyes.

Those eyes widen and she springs up and grabs the cell bars, lips quivering and eyeing Adaar with a horrified gaze. "No! What are you doing here? You're dead!" She spits, then presses her forehead against the iron bars. "The dead ain't supposed to come back to life." She laughs painfully, despite the burning in her lungs, and sighs. "I'm finally going bonkers, seein' dead people and all."

Adaar steps forward and touches Sera's hand, cold almost like a corpse's. "No." Is all she can say with the lump in her throat. Desperately, she squeezes the hand, her voice sputtering like a frightened child. "I-I'm going to get you out. Make sure this never happens. This isn't real..."

"Say something, Buckles." Sera says, a pinch of dying hope in her raspy voice. "If you're real, say something."

Adaar's tongue stiffly refuses to move. She refuses to cry, even if her tears are starting to well up in the corners of her eyes. "I came back to haunt you, silly." She chokes.

"It's really you, huh... I missed you." Sera smiles and looks up into the qunari's eyes softly. "And I guess you're here to fuck shit up, yeah?"

"Of course." Adaar pathetically chuckles. "And I can't fuck shit up without you, can't I? Let's save the day again, just like old times. You and me and my merry band of misfits."

"I'd die just to friggin' spit in their faces, at this point."

Adaar pulls out a key, looted from a dead guard, and wastes no time in opening the cell door open with a loud creak that suggests no one's oiled it in a very long time. Once the barrier between them's gone, Sera jumps and flings herself into Adaar's arms. She buries her face into Adaar's chest and the qunari wraps her arms around the girl's back and waist, noting how much bonier the girl's become.

"We'll wreck this place and make sure none of this ever happens, yeah?" The elf mumbles into Adaar's collarbone.

"Of course." Adaar replies, with no intention of letting go.

Sera looks intently into Adaar's desolate eyes and tugs at her collar. "Get down here, you tit. I'm not going to disappear from existence without doing this at least once."

Without thinking, Adaar does what she's told and Sera places her hand on the back of Adaar's neck, pulling her in for a kiss, full on the lips. Adaar is shocked, but she doesn't linger on it, deciding to trail her hand to the small of Sera's back and pull her closer. She needs comfort in all this mess and she's not going to turn it away, damn it.

Sera's lips are chapped and dry. Adaar doesn't know how long the other girl's gone without water, but she knows it's been a long time. Their lips move roughly and desperately as Adaar balls her fist in Sera's hair, deepening the kiss in a bleak attempt to assure the other woman, or maybe to assure herself, that everything will be fine.

It occurs to Adaar that maybe she can use her healing magic to help her, maybe get the lyrium out of her flesh. It's a long shot, but green glow on her shaking hand remains for a few seconds before Adaar realizes it's not working. And suddenly, she can't hold it in anymore. Tears begin to roll down her cheeks, some of them straying onto her lips. She sobs into Sera's lips, disregarding Dorian and Cassandra's sympathetic looks.

When she recognizes the salty taste in their kiss, Sera pulls back and wipes the tears away, her thumbs grazing over Adaar's scarred face. "Don't cry, Buckles. You'll be okay." She says, leaving Adaar wondering how she's the one comforting her when the elf is the one in such a horrible state.

Adaar nods and holds the elf tight, knowing the time she can spare to be able to hold her like this is limited. But the weight in her chest isn't going away, because she realizes that Sera said the mage will be okay, and she's probably right, assuming they can make sure this never happens.

But Sera will not be okay. She may perish in battle in her current state. If they fail to go back, she'll die slowly and painfully while the lyrium eats at her from the inside out. Adaar knows that she can undo this, but she can't help but feel that the damage has been done. The damage done to Sera is real.

And she can't do anything about it.

* * *

><p>Leliana is really pissed when she finds out they have to go around and pick up shards from corpses' pockets when Dorian tells her they need those pieces to open the door to Alexius' chambers. In her ghastly state, with her voice rasping and her body failing, no one has the heart or nerve to say that she doesn't have the right to be mad. Even Dorian falls silent when he's chastised for not having found out what the shards did before they left them behind.<p>

"Let's split up to make things faster." Leliana flatly says, the irritation evident in her sharp tone. "You two," She points to Adaar and Sera. "Stay here and make sure Alexius doesn't get out."

When Leliana disappears through a door, Dorian lets go of the breath he's been holding. "I wouldn't want to get on her bad side." He comments, before he and Cassandra both exit the room. Adaar can hear the echoes of Dorian and Cassandra's voices as the Tevinter mage makes small talk with the Nevarran.

Adaar plops down by a wall and pats the ground beside her, beckoning Sera to join her. The elf is all too happy to sit down after several fights that had worn out her frail body. With Adaar's arm around her waist, Sera rests her head on the qunari's shoulder and asks, "We never did get that mabari, huh?"

"We will." Adaar squeezes the girl's hand. "We'll go straight to Ferelden's best kennel after I kick Alexius' ass, and I'll get you the biggest, scariest mabari there is."

"Great," Sera giggles tiredly. "Although I don't have to worry about keeping you for myself now, yeah?"

"You never had to worry about it." Adaar mutters, kissing the elf on her forehead.

Sera takes the qunari's large, calloused hands, and absentmindedly starts stroking them gently. "What's wrong? You've making that face again. The 'I'm trying to shit but the shit just won't come out' face."

"Did-... does it hurt?"

Sera smirks. "When I fell from heaven?"

Adaar weakly laughs.

Sera brings the back of Adaar's hand to her lips and sighs. "Yeah. It hurts. A lot." She says, the fatigue starting to show in her voice. But still, she looks up at Adaar with hope in her tired eyes. "But it's okay. Do me a favor?"

"Sure." Adaar says _"But it's not okay_." echoes in her mind.

"When you get back, let me kick the Tevinter's balls as hard as I can."

"Will do." Adaar smiles.

Sera looks down forlornly as the lyrium beneath her skin makes her deteriorating body ache. "I know I don't have much time, Buckles. So I'll say it before shite blows up and you're gone. Or I'm gone. Whatever. I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Groaning in what Adaar thinks is humiliation, Sera rubs her nose sheepishly and gives her a regretful look. "I know past me's gonna give you lots of trouble. Hell, past me's already given you a lot of shit whenever you do anything magic or whenever you bring Egghead and Vivi, and I know she-... I'm going to give you a lot more 'cause I'm stupid and selfish and-"

"And I'm an asshole sometimes," Adaar interrupts. "And I make bad decisions, I never listen to you when you tell me to stay away from suspicious magic stuff that always end up blowing up in my face, and-"

"And you keep seeing me and bringing me along to places, even though it makes your job harder." Sera says, playfully twirling Adaar's locks of white hair. "I know what they say about how the Herald of Andraste shouldn't be with a thief who's got no actual job, or coin, or anythin'."

"And they can kiss my ass, I think you're swell."

"When you get back, tell me to step up my game, yeah?" Sera smiles wearily. "Tell me to catch up with your heroics."

"I think you're forgetting that most of my 'heroics' are _our_ heroics. We did those together."

"I guess you got a point." Sera does that sardonic laugh of hers and she gets up into a kneeling position. "Hey, Buckles."

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever let me go. No matter what people say, alright? Promise me." Sera softly says, her fingers tracing Adaar's jawline.

"Promise." Adaar says, stroking the elf's cracked cheek.

And Sera kisses the qunari, softly this time. The kiss is sweet and slow, both women occasionally giggling and smiling too much to actually mack on each other properly. Adaar lets out a low, pleased hum, willing away the thoughts that tell her this Sera's going to be gone soon, one way or another. She knows Sera won't remember any of this, won't remember the sweet kisses they're exchanging, but it's for the best; she won't remember the pain of the lyrium inside her either.

Adaar knows she'll have to let go soon, but she isn't prepared to do it. When they finally kill this wretched timeline's Alexius, when demons start flooding the room in swarms of terror, she knows it's time. It feels like a tug in her heartstrings, at first.

But then she sees Cassandra and Leliana, unwavering in the face of certain death, and she shakes her head, refusing to belive this is actually happening. She doesn't know how they can stay so strong facing their doom, while she's going to live but is currently a miserable wreck.

She and Sera's last kiss is drowned in the qunari's tears when the elf pulls back, saying, "One for the road." Then she walks towards the door and doesn't look back, even when Adaar is shouting her name and Dorian is curses as he tries to hold her back. The large door shuts, and the qunari's eyes are blurry with tears as she listens to the sounds of slaughter on the other side. She can't block out the noise of flesh being torn apart and pierced, wincing with every sound that reaches her ears. When the demons finally barge the door open, she sees three bodies on the floor. Bloody, mangled, dead. Sera's blonde hair is matted with blood, her arm is twisted in an angle that's just not right, and her eyes are open and unblinking. Adaar swears she can see a hint of fear in those eyes. Her corpse is caked with blood. Dead.

Adaar can now confidently say that she knows what it feels like to have her heart broken.

Everything warps into an inky blackness that consumes herself and Dorian, who's patting the mage's shoulder and assuring her that everything is fine now. She looks at the Tevinter forlornly, thanks him, and they disappear.

When they're back in the throne room, with Alexius staring at the two mages in disbelief, Adaar grips her staff so hard that her fingernails are turning white. Clenching her teeth hard, the qunari plants her feet on the ground and swings her staff with as much strength as she can muster with her shaking hands. She hits Alexius' nose with a crack, and he falls down in shock. Adaar continues to pummel the magister, shouting a string of curses in Qunlat. The sound of blunt metal hitting bone resonates throughout the walls until Cassandra and Dorian both manage to restrain her. It's not an easy task, but when the two manage to tear the mage from the magister, Adaar finds herself too tired to try and fight back.

Adaar hugs Cassandra tight, gaining a strange look from the Seeker herself. "You're okay."

"Of course I'm alright." Cassandra says, patting the mage's back warmly, looking at Dorian questioningly. "What happened?"

"It's a long story, one I'll tell you later over a bottle of wine, if you wish." Dorian says, while rolling his shoulders and stretching his stiff muscles.

Meanwhile, Adaar is hugging Sera so tightly that the elf's legs are lifted off the ground. Relief washes over the mage like a warm shower when she hears the archer's usual carefree laugh. "Miss me, Buckles?"

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" Adaar says, relieved as she looks into a clear pair of caramel eyes that hold no trace of glowing red whatsoever.

In the back, Dorian is making exaggerated kissing noises as he describes the events of he and Adaar's very busy noon to Cassandra, who's giving him a very skeptical and unimpressed look.

"What happened in there, huh?" Sera asks, wiping the tears from Adaar's eyes, not unlike how the doomed version of her did.

"It's a long story," Adaar chuckles. "Let's get that mabari now. I'd feel better at night knowing a big, protective wall of muscle is sleeping with you."

"Are you talking about yourself or the dog?" Sera wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

Adaar laughs. "Oh, I forgot one thing. I'll explain later. I've got your bow, darling, kick Alexius' balls."

* * *

><p>Leliana brings Adaar, Sera, Dorian and Varric to the best mabari kennel in all of Ferelden, just as Adaar had promised: the kennel of King Alistair himself. While she's catching up with her old friend, she sends a scruffy, beared man named Enzo to show the way to the merry band of misfits.<p>

"I can't believe you're letting mages walk around like that." Sera shudders, still not over the alliance Adaar made with the mages.

"I can't believe you're talking about me as if I'm not here." Dorian comments, chuckling to himself.

"Don't worry, Buttercup." Varric, amused with the girl's distaste for mages although she's practically dating one. A scary qunari one with horns and scars and all that, too. "Curly's watching them like a hawk watches a mouse."

"There are templars standing guard in every corner of Haven, Sera. And you can just tell them that you're my-" Adaar pauses when she recalls that Sera doesn't know or remember what happened in that doomed timeline. She deflates pathetically.

"Your what?" Sera asks, raising an eyebrow.

Dorian sniggers and Adaar playfully elbows him in the ribs.

"Alright, we're here." Enzo says, opening the door to a sturdy looking building with rows and rows of spacious cells that each hold one powerful, broad shouldered mabari hound. "They're smart dogs, they are. Direct descendants from our Queen's famous mabari that fought against the Blight. He's retired, though, just keeps the King company. I think the old dog makes the King more at ease, after the Queen disappeared and all."

"Holy shit." Varric breathes. "They're as tall as I am."

"Just walk along and see if any of the dogs take a liking to ya." Enzo says as they walk past rows of barking hounds of several sizes and colors, ranging from red to white and black to brown.

"Ah, so these are the famed Fereldan war hounds..." Dorian mutters to himself in fascination, in spite of the smell that makes his nose wrinkle. It doesn't smell as bad as he thought it would, though.

Just as they're passing another holding cell, they hear a loud bark. Enzo turns around and approaches a cell, immediately perking up. "Ah, this one."

The mabari is impressive, to say the least. A shiny coat of inky black fur covers solid slabs of built muscle. It's plainly obvious that the dog has more mass than the others. Adaar immediately decides that she likes this one.

"Damn, it's waggin' her tail so hard it's like her arse is vibrating." Sera chortles.

"I've never seen the girl so excited." Enzo chuckles, pulling a ring of keys out from his pocket. "Normally, she's the strong and silent type. Even scares the knights sometimes, that's how strong she is. She's a cut smarter than the other ones, though."

The mabari's wagging grows faster as Enzo opens the lock to the cell. Once it's open, she bolts out, nearly knocking the man down in the process. She abruptly stops once she's at Sera's feet, right as the elf is about to dodge in fear of being mauled, and rolls onto her her back with her long tongue hanging out.

"Seems she's taken a liking to ya, miss." Enzo shuts the cell as he observes the dog kicking her legs happily as Sera scratches her stomach. Once he approaches the dog, she sits up straight and Enzo opens the dog's mouth to show rows of sharp, white teeth. "Good teeth, completely healthy. Hopefully you don't mind the scar." He says, pointing towards a slanted scar across the mabari's eye. "It was an accident during a drill with one of the soldiers, the girl shrugged it off like it was nothing. She's pretty young too, big for her age. She'll grow taller than Mr. Tethras here, if you feed her right."

"Hey!" Varric says, with mock hurt. "That's offensive."

"How is she?" Adaar asks, looking at Sera hopefully. "Big and scary enough so you can keep me to yourself?"

"She's perfect." Sera grins toothily, petting the dog's head affectionately. "I'm calling her Inky."

"That's a surprise." Adaar chuckles. "I would've thought you'd name her after me."

"I _am_ naming her after you. And don't ask what it means, I ain't tellin'." Sera winks and sticks out her tongue. "Now, give her some white war paint and she'll be a dog version of you! She snickers and glances at Adaar as the dog licks her hand.

"Buttercup's got a knack for taming big, scary, creatures of mayhem." Varric smirks.

"Are you talking about the dog or the qunari?" Dorian quips.

"Hey, shut up." Sera stands up on her tip toes and ruffles Adaar's hair. "She's adorable, aren't you, girl?"

"Hey, I'm not adorable." Adaar pouts and playfully swats away Sera's hand. "Look at my badass vitaar and scars. If anything, I'm adorabloodthirsty."

And Dorian immediately decides that staying with the Inquisition will be an interesting ride.

Later, Leliana tells them that King Alistair is generous enough to lend them a carriage to ride to Haven in. It's a welcome help, seeing as the group has spent many nights sleeping uncomfortably in hard mattresses and hot tents.

Looking at the dog curled up half on her lap and half on Sera's, Adaar admits that it brings her a measure of peace to know that there's another thing between the elf and immediate danger. Anyone who thinks closing in on the archer during battle will have to deal with this beast. Under the snoring dog's heavy body and away from Varric, Dorian and Leliana's eyes, Sera strokes Adaar's hands until the larger woman falls into a dreamless sleep.

All is well, at least until Adaar slumps sideways and hits Sera's head with her horns. Hard.

* * *

><p>Is anyone interested in meeting Adaar's former mercenary friends from the Valo-Kas? Who'd you rather see Sera be civil (for once) with? Solas, Vivienne, or Cole? Are there any characters who you want to see more?<p>

Put your answers in the review because they WILL affect future chapters. Also, I bet you didn't expect Adaar and Sera's first kiss to go like that, lol.

Also, did anyone get the Homestuck reference?


	6. Here Comes Creepy

This chapter is dedicated to my dear friend who died in the Air Asia plane crash. May you rest in peace :'(

Happens after a time skip.

* * *

><p>Haven is gone, along with all the soldiers and even the workers who died defending it.<p>

It was a devastating battle that separated the greenhorn soldiers from those who have seen hell, the ones who feared death were cut down like trees and the brave and experienced lived. Some of them, anyway.

Even with Giselle and Solas' encouraging words, Adaar's resolve crumbles like the very avalanche she caused that destroyed the Inquisition's base. The pained sounds of the soldiers and mages who are being medicated doesn't help, nor does the whispering and reports of how many more are going to die from the lack of medicinal supplies and the cold. Cassandra, Cullen, Josephine and Leliana fussing over their next move just makes the throbbing pain in Adaar's skull worse; the sounds of their arguing are like flies that stubbornly fly by the qunari's head just as she's about to drift off to sleep, waking her up even when all she wants to do is lie down.

With a groan, Adaar sits up limply and buries her face in her palms. The medics are done with her injuries, but her skull still throbs and she can just feel a bump growing on the side of her head, just like an extra horn that she really doesn't need. Although her wounds are bandaged, her muscles protest with every movement after the raging battle at Haven and the long walk to camp. She's got two blankets already, but she can't stop shivering and she can't feel her nose and ears. It hurts to move her fingers. She's positive that another five minutes out in that blizzard would have given her frostbite, despite her coat. The healers have done what they can with her broken ribs, but they feel so fragile that she thinks even a hug will make them snap.

Something warm and a little bit itchy lands on Adaar. She sighs and tiredly pulls the shitty blanket off her face, looking up at her generous benefactor.

Sera looks down at the mage and scowls as she brings two bottles of what seems to be booze in both hands. "Friggin' dufus, that's what you are."

"Sorry for sending you away so an avalanche won't crush you?"

"Stupid," Sera frowns, but nevertheless sits closely next to Adaar. "You should've brought me. I'd have planted an arrow in this Coryphilis' ballsack." She mutters, handing Adaar a bottle.

Adaar takes all three of the blankets strewn around her tent and wraps it around her, sighing pleasantly at the warmth mollifying her freezing fingers. "Come on in, I don't bite." She says, and Sera takes her up on her offer. The elf plops down by the qunari, who wraps the blankets over them both, relishing in the extra heat the elf provides.

"What's the occasion?" Adaar asks, reading the label on the bottle. "Antivan wine? Hardly the time for a romantic dinner, don't you think?"

"Nicked it off that shady guy you set on fire last week. Thought it would help you warm up, yeah?" Sera says, softening her tone and taking a swig, preparing to make a joke when her eyes narrow at the woman beside her. "Don't think you're getting away from this. Your stupid arse shouldn't have gone there alone. I'm just waitin' for you to get better before I give you hell. 'Cause I'm still mad, and you're stupid."

Sera feels a pang of guilt in her chest when Adaar finishes a few gulps of her wine and drops her head forlornly like there are invisible weights on her shoulders. "I'm sure you noticed. When the red templars started attacking, the first ones to fight weren't the soldiers or the mages. It was the _workers_. Just as Josephine said, they were so proud of our cause that they gave their lives for it." The qunari sighs. "They looked up to me, Sera. For the first time ever, I was looked up to. I couldn't run away after they died for me."

"They died so that you wouldn't die." Sera argues, trying hard not to snap. "You almost died back there. Hell, if I didn't go out with Inky out to look for you in that shithole blizzard, everyone would've thought you were dead! Then they would have really left, and then you'd be really dead!"

"You saved my sorry ass plenty of times in battle." Adaar reasons and takes a drink. "Can't let you have all the glory, can I?"

"Well, I don't want you to pay me back! You said it yourself, those people look up to you, don't you dare throw your life away for a kid who don't know shite like me! How am I gonna live knowin' they lost you because of me?" Sera grips the bottle in her hand hard enough to make her hand hurt, and she lets out an annoyed huff. She takes a drink, wipes the purple liquid in the corner of her mouth, and crosses her arms petulantly.

"What if I want to throw my life away for you?" Adaar asks, squeezing the elf's hand with her own. "I'm no hero, Sera, I'm just a qunari mercenary. Hell, most of the time people are too busy running away from the big scary qunari mage to even talk to me, how am I supposed to be a damn hero?"

"Shithead." Sera sighs, toning down the harshness in her voice. Adaar is surprised when the elf falls silent for a few moments. "You saw how they were all singin' that dumb song, they wouldn't be alive here if you didn't shoot a fucking avalanche over yourself and they know it. And..."

"And what?" Adaar asks, noticing the tight grip on her hand.

"You're _my_ hero, dumbass." Sera mumbles so quickly that Adaar would have missed it if she wasn't giving the archer her undivided attention. She turns her head away, but even in the darkness, Adaar can see there's a hint of red in the elf's cheeks, and she's not sure if it's because of the alcohol or the embarrassment. "I'm still pissed about you charging off at Coryphytit like that, but... Thanks for saving my life. Even if doin' that nearly squashed you under a damn mountain. Ain't no one's ever done that before." Then she looks at the Tal-Vashoth like a worried mother hen. "Don't think you can do this again, alright? If you die, I'm gonna kill you!"

The qunari resists the urge to ask how the archer's going to kill her if she's already dead.

"Well, you were my hero first." Adaar chuckles. "And I forgot to thank you, so I'll do it now. Thanks for facing down a shit load of demons and an Old God to save me. In your words, ain't no one's ever done that before." The qunari says a bit sheepishly.

Sera's head turns so quickly that Adaar nearly jumps in surprise. "So that's what happened in that damn castle!" She says, taking a few seconds to register the new information. "And that's why you've been walkin' around with a stick up your arse, gettin' me a huge guard dog, practicin' your barriers, goin' nuts whenever I get hurt and shite! You did it..." Sera halts her sentence as she realizes the implications.

"For you, yeah." Adaar grins, then cocks her head to the side when she sees the mortification and confusion on the archer's face. "Why are you so surprised? Am I that much of an asshole that the thought of me doing something nice is that shocking to you?" She laughs and ruffles the elf's short hair.

"But why'd you go through all the trouble?" Sera asks, a look of genuine cluelessness on her face.

Adaar blinks twice before she realizes that Sera is being serious. "Because I like you?"

"I know you like me," Sera says bluntly. "I just didn't know you liked me that much."

"Is it so hard to imagine?" Adaar asks with genuine curiosity.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't, dufus."

Adaar doesn't reply and instead observes quietly as a perfectly symmetrical smile creeps onto Sera's face, a large difference from her usual smirks and Cheshire cat grins. The mage can't remember the last time she saw such sensitivity on the elf's face.

The fleeting sight escapes the moment Sera feels Adaar's arm slip around her waist, and her usual smirk returns again, although more subdued. The qunari's arm is long enough that her hand ends up all the way to Sera's lap. "Getting touchy, are we?"

"What? It's cold." Adaar gives the elf a jokingly half-assed excuse.

"Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Just do it."

Adaar shuts her eyes and puckers up her lips comically. Sera laughs at this and slaps the qunari's face playfully before the mage finally sits still with her eyes closed.

"Can I touch your horns?"

Adaar chuckles. "Of course."

Sera's hands reach out tentatively to the tips of the large horns that grow from the front of the qunari's head. The tips are each encased in one bronze point that curves into a sharp, pointy end. They feel cold in the chilly air, although the dull reflections of the candle light that bounce off them give them a warm look. Sera's fingers trace down to the rough, bony substance of Adaar's horns. Finally, her fingers come upon two cold iron clasps in each horn, running her thumbs over the jagged spot where a chain probably broke off long ago. She admits that she's curious about them, but she'll ask in detail later. When the clasps of iron cut off, her fingers graze horns again until they end on the front of Adaar's head. Not once does the qunari flinch, and this fact doesn't go unnoticed by the archer.

Sera's fingers move downwards onto Adaar's face, tentatively feeling the multitude of scars etched into the mage's face. Some of them she can barely feel, some of them are deep enough to make her wonder what sharp weapon caused them. It only occurs to her now that those scars occupy most of the space on the qunari's face. "Poor thing." She mutters.

_No wonder so many people are scared of you_. She thinks. But the qunari doesn't look the slightest bit scary to Sera, and she curses whoever makes Adaar feel bad about this. She curses them a hundred times. _Their loss, then, more for me. You're all mine._

"I got that big one on my cheek when I escaped from the Qun," Adaar says, without opening her eyes. Sera traces the length of the scar with her thumb, and slowly places a feather light kiss on it. The qunari gasps slightly at this, but she continues on despite the thumping in her chest. "T-The one across my eye is from an ice spell, because of my shitty barriers. And the little nicks are from shrapnel from some explosive that blew up in my face in my mercenary days. The rest is from being reckless in fights, as usual." As Sera follows suit, slowly kissing every scar on the qunari's face, she can feel Adaar's cheeks heat up with her hands. A small smirk crawls onto Adaar's face. "Do I have one on my mouth?"

"Are you asking that so I'll kiss you there?" Sera teases.

"Maybe."

"You little shit, sayin' stuff like that when a kiss on your cheek makes you blush." Sera giggles.

She doesn't complain, though. Both her hands on Adaar's cheeks, Sera slowly inches her face closer to the mage's. She tilts her head to the side to avoid bumping noses, and the qunari gulps in anticipation when she can feel Sera's breath on her, slightly scented with Antivan wine. When their lips finally connect, Adaar releases a pleasant sigh at the feeling of Sera's moist and warm lips upon her own. Adaar's arms find their way around Sera's waist and back, urging the elf to come closer, while said elf's hand is on the back of the qunari's head to deepen the kiss. Their lips move slowly but desperately as one of them realizes she's lost the other one once, and the other realizing she's almost lost the other one this very night. They both know the wine they taste in each other's mouths isn't the cause of their intoxication.

Then Sera gently pushes the qunari onto her back without breaking the kiss even once, and Adaar loudly howls in pain at the pressure on her tender ribs. Sera pulls back in astonishment and pushes herself up, sitting on the mage's hips with a regretful look.

"Aw, shite, I forgot about your ribs." Sera holds Adaar's shoulders worriedly and then flails around in panic. "Shit, shit, it didn't crack again, didn't it?"

Adaar takes a few breaths to stabilize herself, waiting until her ribcage stops throbbing in pain enough for her to speak. The pain subsides after a few seconds, and she finally manages to find her voice. "If I say yes, will you kiss it better?"

"Shithead." Sera says, the affection in her voice a stark contrast to the word she usually reserves for 'friggin' piss drinkers'. She leans down to kiss the qunari again, her hands on the ground to support her weight. They're giggling too much too kiss properly but they manage to tone it down enough to lock their lips right.

The tent flap opens.

Inky the dog rushes in with remnants of snow in her black fur, barking happily at the sight of her master. Behind her is Vivienne and Cole.

Vivienne's breathing is hard as she runs in without her headpiece on. "Darling, I thought I heard-" She looks down and her expression of surprise turns into a frown. "Oh, dear." She says, her voice oozing disapproval.

"I tried to tell her not to worry." Cole apologetically says.

"Shush, Vivi." Sera looks at the Orlesian proudly. "I'm the only one allowed to call her that now." She grins, sitting contently on the qunari's hips as if she's asserting her dominance.

Vivienne decides that she won't humor the elf, and instead looks at the qunari with so much disapproval that Adaar feels she's going to shrink. "Herah, I need you to do something about Cole."

"If he doesn't have a tent to stay in, he can stay with me." Adaar shrugs.

"What?" Both Vivienne and Sera ask simultaneously.

"That is not what I meant, Herah." Vivienne frowns. "Darling, he's a _demon_."

"He's creepy." Sera adds, for once agreeing with the Orlesian mage.

"Last time I checked, demons possess things to get out of the Fade. He's not possessing or being possessed."

"He reads people's minds. That thing's just wrong." Sera argues, crossing her arms, finally getting off to sit on the ground. Inky bolts at the chance and claims her lap as a chair.

"Look," Adaar sighs, trying to find the right words. "Our heads would be on Corypheus' wall if it wasn't for him, and I know you two have doubts, but I'm not turning away someone who saved our lives. If he lays a hand on anyone, I'll gladly offer up my ass."

"No way," Sera argues and pulls at Adaar's arm. "Your arse is _mine_, get it? I don't share."

Vivienne clicks her tongue in disapproval. "You've got a nice head on your shoulders, Herah, but I must say that I've no idea what you're thinking sometimes." She sighs. "But very well, you have never betrayed my trust." She turns back to exit, and gives the qunari one last look. "I only advise you to be careful and I will be waiting if you need my assistance. And... your dalliances with this _imp_ is going to cost you your reputation, darling, I hope you know that." She says, glaring at Sera as she leaves.

"Thank you." Cole smiles gratefully.

"No problem, Cole. I hope you're going to join this merry band of misfits." Adaar smiles wryly and looks at the frowning elf beside her. "Judging by the ominous aura, I'm guessing you want to stay here too."

"I'm not leavin', especially if _Creepy's_ gonna sleep _here_." Sera glares at the rogue. "Also, Vivi's callin' you your first name now?"

"Vivienne and I are friends. Wow, surprising, huh? And yeah, Cole's bunking with us. Yay, sleepover."

"Fine, but I'm sleepin' in your bed." Sera makes a face at Cole. "I'm not gonna toss you out to sleep in the snow, Creepy, but one wrong move and BAM! Arrow in your face."

Adaar sighs and promises herself to do some damage control later. For her own sanity's sake. It's going to be a long, long night. She gives Cole an apologetic look.

He nods in appreciation.

* * *

><p>So, the winner is Cole. Have any ideas for how Adaar can make these two get along?<p>

Say, if either Adaar or Sera is going to get sick, who should it be? Answer in the reviews, this will affect future chapters :)


	7. In Which Adaar Does Something Gross

Since the real plot is starting, there will be much fewer time skips from now on. Enjoy!

I got this idea from a review I got a while ago, although the reviewer probably didn't think this would happen, lol.

This chapter contains a little sexual stuff because it's SERA, and these two have spent moths dancing around each other. It's small, but I thought I'd let you know.

* * *

><p>Adaar groggily wakes up to the pleasant feeling of lips trailing slowly up her jaw. She doesn't know what time it is, but judging from the faint sounds of grumbling and footsteps from outside the tent, it's still quite early in the morning, which basically means it's much too early for her to get out of bed.<p>

Sleeping in isn't usually in Adaar's agenda, since she typically has a long list of activities to complete by the end of the day, such as having meetings in the war room, completing her daily training (which consists of magical training and melee training with her bladed staff), fulfilling requisitions and aimlessly wandering around doing menial tasks for people. And that's before she has to play peacemaker between Sera and Vivienne or Solas when the elf, who really has way too much time on her hands, does one of her mind-boggling pranks.

But there _is_ no war room, at the moment, and she can't possibly do any melee or physical training when her ribs are busted and her entire body is littered with cuts and bruises that are really starting to sting and ache. Nobody is obsessive enough to deal with those pesky requisitions now, but more importantly, there's a girl curled up in bed with her and Adaar definitely intends to enjoy the morning while it lasts.

When a breath ghosts over Adaar's lips, she raises her head slightly and gives her a small kiss.

It takes a few seconds for Adaar's foggy mind to register that something's not right. Sera's breath can't possibly smell like what seems to be a combination of raw meat and eggs. Second, Adaar doesn't remember Sera's lips being so _wet_, as in slobbery dog wet. Third, Sera definitely does _not_ pant enthusiastically into her face while she licks the qunari's face all over.

Adaar's eyes tear open and she comes face to face with the head of a very affectionate mabari hound who gives a happy bark as she sees her master's lover gape in shock.

_Shit_, Adaar yells in her mind. _Please don't let anyone see that, please don't let anyone see that..._

A big sneeze. The qunari fearfully turns her head to the side, and there stands Sera with her hand pressed to her face to muffle the sneeze. Luckily, the tray of bread, jerky and water the elf was carrying is already safely on the ground; it would have ended up all over the floor had the elf been carrying it while she saw _that_.

Before Adaar can open her mouth, Sera runs outside with the speed of a lightning bolt with her usual mischievous grin, leaving the qunari behind.

The mage just lies there with an expression of pure terror on her face, only snapping out when Inky gives her another lick on her face.

The first thing Adaar does when she gets up is turn away from the entrance of the tent and splash half a glass of water on her face and start scrubbing so furiously at her lips. She does this for a few seconds, every scrub harder than the previous one. Her sharp horns move dangerously in the air as she does this, not caring that her lips would probably be bruised when she's done.

"Uh... Boss?"

Adaar stops scrubbing her lips when she recognizes Iron Bull's voice. Tentatively wiping the water away from her face, the Tal-Vashoth slowly turns around and resists the urge to close her eyes in shame as she looks at Blackwall and Iron Bull, who are both staring at her as if she's just grown an extra horn in the middle of her forehead.

Sera has her arms wrapped around Bull's thick arm, her face buried into the man's bicep. Her shoulders are shaking uncontrollably.

"Bull. Blackwall." Adaar greets tensely, forcing herself to smile.

The female qunari is greeted back with two extremely disapproving glares from the two warriors.

"Lass, you and Sera here are seeing each other, eh?" Blackwall asks with a low, tentative voice.

"And I hear that you cheated on her." Bull adds, with a scowl as he clenches his frighteningly huge fists.

Sera begins to breathe raggedly. "And with that bitch too!"

Blackwall sighs and furrows his brow. "I'm disappointed in you, friend."

"And don't expect us to let you off easy." Bull frowns. "Sera's our _sister_, Boss, and no way in hell am I letting anyone to this to one of our own."

Adaar's tongue can't move. She wills it to let her talk, but she doesn't manage to find the words to explain the circumstances without making her look like some kind of sick pervert. Instead, she closes her eyes and hopes this is all a bad dream, swearing she'll never have Antivan wine before sleeping ever again.

And then Iron Bull and Blackwall's stony faces begin to crumble, but it's Sera who begins laughing first. Yes, her breaths are ragged and her face is buried in the Ben-Hassrath's shoulder, but there's good reason for that; when she turns around, she's biting her lips in an effort to keep her laughter in, and hyena-like roars of laughter escape when she opens her mouth.

Soon, that laughter is joined in by the two warriors, each laugh louder and longer than the last. Sera's face is red with laughter as she clutches her stomach, while tears are visible on the corners of the Iron Bull's shoulders. Blackwall has to hold on to his own knees to keep himself standing upright as his roaring laughter threatens to topple him over.

Adaar stares dumbly until she feels the blood rush to her cheeks. As much as she wants to retaliate with a witty comment, she can't, for once in her life.

Only then does Adaar fully register how bad the archer looks. Her skin is pasty pale, her hands are shivering, and her lips have lost their alluring pinkish tint. A few beads of cold sweat gather on Sera's forehead, but the only thing the qunari is thinking is, _Great. Now they're going to put this on my epitaph._

* * *

><p>"Had a nice dream last night, did you?" Sera smirks as she watches Adaar bite into a chunk of bread.<p>

Adaar swallows the lumpy piece of bread. "Yes, it involved a harem of sexy bitches. Literal bitches. I've always had a secret fetish for them. The secret is out." She drawls, trying to salvage her wounded pride with a remark.

Sera giggles and raises an eyebrow suggestively. "Admit it. You thought it was me, huh, Buckles?"

"Admit it." Adaar shoots back. "You're jealous of your own mabari."

"Don't be sassy with me when you're all blushy like one of them Chantry sisters." Sera retorts.

The mage puts her arm around Sera's waist, "So demanding." Adaar replies, leaning in to capture the elf's lips in a kiss.

But right before their lips meet, Sera turns her head and Adaar's lips come in contact with her cheek instead. The qunari raises an eyebrow. "What's wrong?" She asks. "I already brushed my teeth after I 'cheated' on you. Three times."

"You're full of shit." Sera grins and puts her finger on Adaar's lips. "I can still smell the dog slobber-" She stops mid-sentence, pulls her head back, and sneezes so hard that her lithe body jumps from the ground for a second. "Balls," Sera curses under her breath. "Why's it got to be so cold here, huh? Can't get out of the tent without my tits freezin' over."

"Can't kiss me without giving me your cold too, huh?"

"No," Sera denies a little too vehemently. "I can still smell the mutton I gave Inky last night on your breath, and I ain't kissin' you 'till after it's gone." She chuckles a bit perversely. "Don't care how tall and _phwoar_ you are."

"Didn't peg you for the denial type, Sera." Adaar ignores what the elf says as she presses the back of her hand to Sera's forehead and neck. "Usually, the denial ends _after_ two people start making out."

Sera grumbles at this and her face reddens in a moment that's quite out of character for the bouncy, straightforward archer. Adaar's eyes narrow questioningly, but she decides to ask about it later.

The qunari frowns. "You're warm. I'll get some medicine and food for you, okay? I'll just be a minute." She pulls her faded blue blanket and drapes it over Sera and begins to walk out.

Sera groans. "Fuck that, you don't-" Adaar walks out. Sera curses.

It takes a little longer than fifteen minutes for the qunari to get back, just as Sera is getting bored enough to begin humming a song to herself and contemplate running out to cause a little mischief amidst all the depression. Sera's too late, though, and it's only when she's about to escape that Adaar walks in carrying a towel in one hand and a tray of food in the other. She puts the folded towel beside the bed and puts the tray in front of Sera. A tall stack of bread, roast meat and cheese sits beside a glass of warm water and hot soup.

"I would've gotten you milk, but that damn mountain goat nearly gored me when I grabbed her tits." Adaar grins. "And don't even think about trying to escape, because today I'm showing you my girlfriend powers."

"Why do I feel like 'girlfriend powers' isn't what I think it is?" Sera mutters.

"In case you're wondering, 'girlfriend powers' is what I'm going to use to get you to stay in bed and have fun doing it."

Sera looks at the qunari and wriggles her eyebrows suggestively. "Is it sex? Tell me it's sex."

"Are you offering?" Adaar responds with a look of her own.

"Once snot's not dribbling down my damn face, yeah." Sera mutters before she begins eating the soup, trying to ignore the dull throbbing in her head. "Thanks for the chow."

"Then you'd better get well soon." Adaar smiles almost innocently.

Sera punches Adaar's shoulder lightly. "I'm gonna nail you once I stop feeling like shite."

"I'll mark it on my calendar." Adaar chuckles.

Sera eats quickly and not very silently. The mage quietly watches as the elf chews down one piece of bread in her hand and alternates that with the piece of roast mutton in the other. Adaar nervously raps her fingers against the floor. "Last night, when you found me, how long were you out in that blizzard?"

"I don't friggin' know." Sera shrugs dismissively.

"A little birdie called Josephine told me you were out for at least three hours. Without any winter gear." The mage says, noticing Sera look down in embarrassment at her words. Adaar softly laughs and puts her arm around the elf, planting a kiss on the side of the elf's head. "Bringing me breakfast? Saving my life by trudging around in a snowstorm for three hours to find me? I think I'm swooning."

"I bet you say that to all the girls." Sera nudges as she finishes her third piece of cheese.

"Nope, just you."

"Well, you did a lot more for me, yeah?" Sera mutters, holding the steaming glass of water to warm her shivering hands. "You're a keeper."

Adaar chuckles lowly and presses a few gentle kisses to the side of Sera's face, trailing down to the hinge of her jaw. "I aim to please."

"You're like a puppy, Buckles, you know that?"

"Hey," Adaar pouts. "With these badass scars and rugged good looks, I'm at least a full grown mabari."

Sera looks at the mage affectionately as she sips the last of the water in her glass. "You're a piece of shit, Buckles."

At this, Adaar gently shoves the sick girl down to her bed, mindfully considering Sera's condition. Before the city elf can react, Adaar feverishly molds their lips together as she clumsily pulls the blankets over their heads. Sera considers pushing the qunari away to keep her away from getting her cold, but the damage is done and her thoughts are being stripped from her with every insistent brush of Adaar's tongue against her lips. Once Sera lets the tongue enter her mouth, running her hands over the Tal-Vashoth's broad back, relishing the feeling of Adaar's hands starting to wander hungrily around her torso. Adaar winces at the pressure of Sera's body on her tender ribs, but she doesn't even think about stopping. The heat starts to get to both their heads as Sera's fingers begin to trail the skin underneath Adaar's shirt.

"I've mixed some things to help."

Adaar's head turns so quickly that she nearly knocks Sera's head over with her horns. Cole is standing with a mug of steaming _something_ in his hand. He doesn't look surprised or even flustered. As usual, he just seems contemplative and curious. Nevertheless, Adaar forces herself to get off Sera and clears her throat nervously as the nice, delicious heat slowly dissipates into cold awkwardness at the spirit's presence.

Sera narrows her eyes. "The fuck? Ever heard of knocking, Creepy?"

"I am sorry for the interruption." Cole says, seeing the growing blush on both women's faces. "But it's cold outside and it will make the herbs grow cold." He offers the Adaar the mug. It's filled with warm, light green water.

"Thanks, Cole." Adaar says taking a whiff of whatever it is. _Herbal medicine_, she thinks. "Whose ass did you pull this out of? I went looking for them earlier and all I found on this darn mountain is snow, rocks, and more snow."

"There's a small clearing by the lake near the bottom of the mountain." Cole says before turning around to leave. "Blood was spilled there many years ago. Every inch of soil drenched in the fallen soldiers' blood grows-... I should leave. There are many injured who need my attention."

The two watch Cole exit in silence before Sera scowls viciously. "Damn, what a mood killer."

Adaar chuckles and hands her the mug. "Go ahead."

"What? I'm not drinkin' anything _Creepy_ gets me." Sera leans away from the mug in Adaar's hand. "What if he poisoned it or something, huh?"

"Sera, come on, I wouldn't ask you to drink something if he put something like rat shit in it." Adaar sighs, pushing the mug closer. "It'll help you get better, promise." When Sera doesn't make a move, Adaar moves the mug to her lips and takes a sip before she attempts to hand it over to the stubborn elf again. "Not bad. Tastes like tea."

"Did you put it up to this?"

"No." Adaar answers, cringing at the 'it' in Sera's sentence. "And 'it', Sera? That's harsh."

Sera doesn't reply and instead takes the mug. She takes a deep breath and carefully takes a gulp. It tastes slightly bitter and herby, but the taste of peppermint buries the bitterness well. It occurs to her for a second that Cole probably put it there to make it taste better.

Adaar looks at her inquisitively. "Well? You're not writhing on the ground and frothing at the mouth, aren't you?"

"Not yet." Sera mutters, although a tiny sliver of guilt is starting to form in her gut. It only takes a few more seconds for her to finish the contents of the mug, and she can't believe she's thinking it, but it doesn't taste half bad. It even tastes a bit like tea. She reminds herself to thank the spirit later. Just a simple 'thanks' before she'll turn around and run like hell before he does his weird mind reading thing.

Adaar awkwardly coughs. "Is this the part where we awkwardly discuss our relationship?" Sera stares at her incredulously before she bursts out laughing, to Adaar's embarrassment. "Okay, that sounded a little better in my head." The qunari mutters.

"What's there to talk about?" Sera tilts her head to the side. "You and me go places, then we roll around in bed."

"Not very subtle, I see." Adaar smirks.

Sera scoffs jokingly. "This comin' from you, who was ready to jump me before Creepy ruined it?"

"Touché." Adaar chuckles.

"_Tooshay_ to you too, whatever that means." Sera mutters. Then she looks at the qunari bemusedly. "I'm more shocked _you_ were gonna go hands on with my parts."

Adaar averts her eyes in shame. "Sorry, it was crappy of me to make a move while you're feeling like shit."

Sera laughs and punches Adaar gently in the arm. "Relax, Buckles, I'm more surprised you wanna bang me with all the snot and shite. 'Sides, can't believe I'm sayin' it but I'm telling you to keep it in your pants until you're all better, yeah?" She says, planting a small kiss Adaar's jaw. "Won't feel right otherwise."

* * *

><p>Nights in the mountain are cold and much darker, given the lack of lanterns and insulation. The scouts returned that evening to tell Leliana that they've found the stronghold Solas mentioned and the spymaster decides that they're heading there first thing tomorrow. Cole is out helping Mother Giselle tend to the injured to make sure they're able to walk to the stronghold the next day, a task that's none too easy with the sheer number of injured soldiers.<p>

Meanwhile, Sera is sitting on her bedroll while Adaar sits across her, holding a thick, red book in her hands. The Tal-Vashoth flips the pages with practiced ease while Sera eyes her strangely.

"You're readin' me a bedtime story."

"Yes, and I specifically picked out a book that you'll enjoy very, very much." Adaar says, with a low chuckle and a sly smile.

It doesn't take a genius to see she's up to something. "What's it called?"

"Tale Of The Champion: Extended Edition." Adaar reads, face lighting up as the finally flips over to chapter twelve. "I'm skipping to the part that you'll most definitely like."

"That's Varric's book, yeah?" Sera asks, recalling the conversations Adaar and Varric had in their travels.

"Yes, but the extended part," Adaar smiles wickedly. "Is written by Captain Isabela herself."

Sera pauses and tilts her head, smiling slyly. "That's Hawke's lover, huh?" She giggles in an unashamed perversion at the mention of the pirate's name. "The sexy pirate one, yeah? Stole stuff with her once in a job. Damn, her tits..."

That gets Adaar's attention, but she figures she'll have Sera tell her all about her encounter with the captain later. It's time for her to do the talking, after all.

The qunari clears her throat as Sera watches her intently. "Isabela hands have yearned for many nights to slip off the silky red bathrobe from the Champion. When she finally does, she's met with the wonderful sight of alluring, creamy skin. Hawke's short brown hair is disheveled already, but her icy blue eyes stare pleadingly as Isabela skillfully moves-"

"You're an arsehole, Buckles." Sera smirks.

Adaar chuckles knowingly. "Whatever do you mean, Sera?"

"So you can't keep it in your pants," Sera rests her chin on her hand and purposely gives the qunari an alluring gaze. "You're doin' this to set the mood, yeah? Well, it's not workin'."

Adaar pouts and places a bookmark on the page before she sets it down, groaning with frustration.

"This is payback, Buckles." Sera grins proudly as she practically tastes Adaar's frustration in the air. "You kept teasin' for _months_ and running away when I tease back for _months_, like you're playing tag or somethin'. Well, guess what?" She leans forward until the distance between her face and Adaar's is almost nonexistent. The qunari stops breathing. "You got to kiss me yesterday but you ain't gonna fondle my parts that easy. My turn to play." She says, twirling a lock of Adaar's white hair enticingly.

Adaar's breath hitches as Sera closes the distance between them. She kisses her full of want and desire, teasing the qunari cruelly as her tongue repeatedly almost enters Adaar's warm mouth, pulling back just as the mage opens her mouth to welcome her.

Sera swears she can hear Adaar growl before the qunari desperately pulls her deeper into the kiss, and softly whimper when Sera's tongue finally comes into contact with the mage's. Sera allows her tongue a couple of brushes and strokes before she pulls back and has to stop herself from proudly smirking at the dumbfounded look on Adaar's face.

Before Adaar can complain, Sera gives her an innocent peck on the lips. "Night, Buckles." She says, winking as she pulls the blanket over herself.

Adaar wants to scream.

* * *

><p>Alright, guys, let's talk about M rated scenes. It's bound to happen sooner or later, but I'm asking you: Do you want it explicit (story will change to M), or non-explicit (story will stay T)?<p>

When do you want it to happen?

FYI, I'm trying to show a side of Sera that's not all jokes, being stubborn, sex, and swearing and being silly. There will be plenty of that, but I think it would be interesting to show a deeper side of her, don't you think? Think of all the fluffy possibilities.


	8. Fuck No

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, I'll make sure to use all of them (you heard that right).

* * *

><p>Adaar plops down ass first into the cold, untended weeds in the 'courtyard', in the very middle of the tavern and the multitude of unused and run-down buildings in Skyhold. Soldiers and mages alike scurry around in an effort to place for the injured. Her ribs still hurt but they are much better, seeing as both Vivienne and Solas are very adept healers, unlike the qunari herself. But hell, does she feel like crap; she spent the previous night with Josephine, Leliana, Cullen and Cassandra, making plans for rebuilding. By the time she finished and went back to bed to curl up, the sun had already risen.<p>

None of the soldiers have the heart to ask her to help with setting up camp after seeing her slumped, red-eyed from her lack of sleep.

"Hey, grandma." Sera grins as she suddenly appears from the crowd. She crosses her arms smugly. "Gettin' old already?"

Adaar grins wryly. "You're not the one who nearly got squashed by an avalanche, fell into a dark ass tunnel filled with sharp stuff for me to get stabbed with, and-"

Sera takes Adaar's hand lightly, tugging it enough to make the qunari stop talking. "Well, you've got enough energy to ramble, so you've got enough energy to come with me." She says, in a tone that suggests she's on to something no good. As usual.

"If you're asking me to go back to Haven to carry out a rescue mission for your precious booze, I'm going to have to tell you to go fuck yourself." Adaar chuckles.

"You'd love to see that, yeah?" Sera smirks.

The corner of Adaar's lips twitch. Had it been anyone else, they'd think that they pissed off the mage with something they said, but Sera knows her well enough to know that she's just embarrassed but isn't showing it.

"Anyway, come on, let's poke around the place a bit, yeah?" Sera pulls Adaar's large hand harder. "Before the soldiers find 'em all and take the good stuff!"

Despite her aching muscles, Adaar simply stands up and ruffles Sera's hair. "I've read enough horror novels to know that two people walking in an abandoned anything is a horrible idea, but what the hell." She shrugs. "Lead the way."

Sera smiles enthusiastically and pulls Adaar's hand so hard that the Tal-Vashoth is sure she heard her shoulder pop.

* * *

><p>It's been a while since they've seen any windows or cracks in the roof to shed some literal light on their little exploration. The interior of the stronghold is eerily dark. Adaar lights a fire in her hand to help them see better, the warm embers on her palm illuminating the thick clouds of dust flying around. Broken furniture such as various chairs and tables litter the seemingly endless hallways.<p>

"Not the castle filled with loot that you expected, huh?" Adaar comments, as she steps over yet another broken chair.

"Not _yet_," Sera stubbornly presses onward, despite the various clutter she kicks around for the hell of it. "I mean, everyone knows the treasure's in the castle's knickers, not the shirt pockets."

"In other words, you want us to go deeper and get lost, like every clueless protagonist in every horror novel ever."

She's kidding, of course. She knows there's probably nothing in the stronghold but junk, but then again, the whole place looks like it was left in a hurry, and people _do_ leave valuable things when they do that. Besides, it beats the depressing sight of dying soldiers everywhere outside.

Adaar laughs lightly. "I guess it would be no fun if it doesn't make you curious and desperate before it gives you the good stuff."

Sera turns her head at the qunari and gives her a crooked grin. "You talkin' about the treasure or sex?"

"Maybe I'm talking about both." Adaar gives Sera a grin of her own.

They both chuckle at this for a few seconds, until Sera suddenly stops in her tracks. The elf narrows her eyes warily and motions for Adaar to stay quiet. Slowly, she readies her bow and fetches an arrow from her quiver and watches the corner of the hallway. "Did you hear that?" Sera whispers.

"Hear what?" Adaar asks, gripping the shaft of her staff tensely.

Then she hears it. At first, it's the sound of what seems like various clutter being knocked around from a distance. But the sounds get closer at an alarming rate, accompanied with the echoing of what sounds like more than one pair of feet running towards the corner of the hallway.

When the thing finally turns the corner, Sera pulls her bowstring to prepare a deadly shot while Adaar's staff crackles with electricity.

It heads towards Sera with breakneck speed, but the arrow never flies. The beast leaps straight for her face with powerfully thick hind legs, and begins to happily lick the elf's nose and entire face, panting happily all the while.

Adaar releases a hefty sigh as the energy in her staff fizzles out.

"Inky!" Sera pets the hound gladly, despite being knocked back by the force. "You really got to work on bein' sneaky, girl."

"Guess she does take after me, then." Adaar chuckles.

"She was out pullin' those heavy arse carts with Cullen, last time I saw." Sera giggles as the hound stands to lick her face affectionately. She gives Inky a few scratches behind her ear before the mabari's sheer weight begins to give the archer trouble keeping her balance.

Adaar kneels and gives the fine black fur on the back of Inky's head a few friendly strokes. "I guess you missed her."

Inky barks in agreement and appreciatively licks Adaar's jaw. It's the only part of her face that the mabari can reach, with the qunari's monstrous height. The hound then turns around and walks down the hallway, reaching a heavy wooden door with rusty hinges. She looks at both Adaar and Sera with an intelligence that's almost human.

"Guess she found something." Adaar comments, absentmindedly sweeping junk from out of her way with her feet.

"I knew the losers who left this place has gotta left some shiny stuff behind." Sera gives Inky an ear-to-ear grin as she pats him. "Someone's gettin' extra for dinner."

Adaar pouts pathetically. "With all the attention you're giving her, I would have sworn the dog's your lover and not poor old Buckles. Remember Buckles?"

The sight of Adaar pouting like a child amuses Sera and it shows with how the city elf giggles and gets on the tips of her toes to give the qunari's chin a small peck. "Maybe you'll keep me company in my tent later instead of bein' boring with Noodles, Leliana and Josie and then falling asleep on the war table?"

"That _does_ sound better than waking up with splinters on my face." Adaar rubs her cheek a little self-consciously, feeling the scars that have accumulated on her face throughout the years. "I don't really need it to get even more messed up."

"You really need a better qunari face paint thing, whatever that's called. And get some iron on your armor instead of leather, no hide's gonna help with the way you go all _roar_ in fights." Sera says, visualizing the image in her head. Tall, sexy Adaar with a white vitaar resembling the pattern of a 'qunari mage helmet or mask or whatever', as the elf puts it. Adaar with a gleaming chestplate, her shoulderguards emphasizing the broadness of her shoulders, complete with fine gauntlets and greaves. "Woof." Sera breathes dreamily.

At this, Adaar reminds herself to give the blacksmith a visit. It really would help her get hurt less, and it really wouldn't hurt if she could make Sera swoon in the process. "I might just do that if it makes you happy in the pants."

"You better," Sera says, while playing over the image again and again in her mind. It takes ten seconds of Adaar silently watching the elf devilishly smiling in her raunchy fantasy before she finally snaps out. Pinching Adaar's cheek, the elf motions for Adaar to lean down. When she does, Sera kisses her sweetly. "Chicks dig scars. Well, I _really_ do. Next bastard who says otherwise has got a beehive waitin' in his pillow. Doesn't mean you should get more of 'em, though."

"I don't know, Sera." Adaar smirks as she finally opens the door, it's hinges creaking noisily in the silent hallway. "I do _really_ enjoy it when you get all protective in battle."

And the door finally opens.

Sera's face drops at the sight of the room. It's a fairly small room with one lone couch in the middle and one large bookshelf on each wall. The dust makes her sneeze. "Tell me it's not more of those creepy magic books. Inky, why'd you bring us here, huh?" She looks in a mock accusatory glare at the dog. "Hell, you're really just a mini Buckles. You've even got the thing for boring magic books and all that."

The flame in Adaar's hand hovers to the top of the room, effectively lighting up the room in a warm glow. She walks over to a bookshelf and pulls out one random book. The corner of her lips curve upwards when she reads the title on the cover of the elegant red book. "On the contrary, I think you're going to love this." She says, holding up the cover for Sera to read.

The doubtful look in Sera's face instantly crumbles when she reads the fine print. "Seriously?" Her face contorts in a horrified expression. "_'The Sexual Applications of Magic'_? Who the fuck's nutty enough to even think of this shit?"

Adaar shrugs and amusedly flips through the pages of another book written in a language she can't read. "You might want to take a glance at this." She says, handing Sera the thick book.

Upon seeing it's contents, Sera breaks out into a laughter that fills the entire room. Inky tilts her head in confusion. "Are these supposed to be sex positions?"

"If I ever tried any of those, I'd probably break my back." Adaar chuckles, surveying the other bookshelves with piqued interest. She dusts the spines of the books with the back of her hand, her eyebrow raised higher with every title she reads. "Literature." She mutters.

"Boring." Sera says, drawling out the word in emphasis.

"Smutty literature."

"Still boring." Sera says dismissively. She gently hugs Adaar from behind, feeling the defined muscle of Adaar's back and stomach, even under the mage's thick coat. Although the coat just smells like regular worn leather, the archer finds comfort in the scent of Adaar's hair. The white locks' scent reminds her of the the frosty coldness of snow and the comforting warmth of fire at the same time. _Maybe it's from all the damn magic she does, _she thinks. "Doing's better than readin'."

Adaar is nicely surprised as Sera's hands begin to wander. Just yesterday, the elf was gloating about how she was going to have her 'revenge' and make her pay for how it took many months and a near annihilation from a darkspawn magister to kiss her. Of course, she was joking, but Adaar knows Sera's going to do it anyway because she likes playing games, and this is one game of teasing the qunari to madness is one that Sera's definitely been enjoying.

"I'll get you out of your damn slump, Buckles." Sera husks, as her hands begin to trail under Adaar's shirt.

_Oh,_ Adaar thinks. _That's why._ "Offering sex to make me feel better, I see. That's sweet." She says, when she feels feather light kisses on the back of her neck.

The thing is, Sera's too short to do that. And even if she was standing on a box or anything like that, she can't kiss the back of Adaar's neck when there's a curtain of hair blocking her lips.

Adaar's eyes snap open when the kisses start to move to the front of her neck. She has a feeling she knows what it is, but she can't bring herself to say it. "Sera," She turns around and looks at the elf with a look of pure, unadulterated fear. "Is there something on my neck."

"Oh, it's just a little spid-"

"Get it off." Adaar says, her shaking voice completely overriding the commanding tone of her voice. "Now!"

"Alright, alright." Sera giggles, reaching out for the furry little arachnid. "Hell, back in the alienage-"

The spider scurries away at the sight of Sera's hand, onto Adaar's chin. The qunari pales and her breathing ceases as she bites her mouth shut. Her hand begins to swat away at her own face in a futile effort to get the spider off. The arachnid merely scurries around the qunari's face, avoiding each slap accurately and urging the qunari to slap harder and faster while she begins to shake her head around violently to get it off.

Sera can see that Adaar wants to scream, but she keeps her mouth shut in fear of having the spider wander inside. The elf stares in a mixture of both bewilderment at the sight of a strong, large qunari mage flailing around and slapping her own face because of a damn spider, and fear at the sight of Adaar's long, big and sharp, iron-clad horns dangerously moving from side to side and from front to back in the air like an angry bull's.

Adaar's eyes shut in fear and she reaches for the aforementioned _The Sexual Applications of Magic_ book on the side table. When she finally finds it, she uses it to try and whack the spider but only manages to whack _herself_ with painful sounding thuds that make Sera wince. Finally, the flailing leads her into the side table. Literally. She knocks the table down and she comes down with it, falling to the dusty floor with a sickening_ thwack_ when her forehead connects with the ground.

The spider scurries off into the corner of the room somewhere.

Adaar hurriedly stands up just as Sera approaches to help her up, nearly knocking over the elf with her horns as she does so. With beads of cold sweat on her pasty pale face, Adaar clenches her fist tensely. "I need to shower." She shakily says.

Sera smirks and finally allows herself to snicker. "Spiders, Buckles? Big, tough Buckles is scared shitless of an itty bitty spider?"

"That," Adaar points to the corner of the room, where the spider skitters around on the wall innocently. "Is not an 'itty bitty spider'."

Sera laughs and begins to wriggle her fingers on Adaar's face and neck. "Skitter skitter skitter!"

"Sera, stop it!" Adaar shouts, grabbing the elf's wrists forcefully. "I think I hear something."

Sera's about to make a retort and start prying Adaar's hands off, but then she hears something. Something that sounds like skittering.

Adaar's face goes impossibly pales and the sweat begins to roll down her cheeks. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

"What, giant spiders?" Sera waves her hand dismissively and heads for the door.

"Sera, no!" Adaar whisper-shouts and stamps her foot petulantly. "Sometimes they come to abandoned pla-"

"Relax, babe." Sera winks confidently and reaches for the door. "Lived in the shittiest alienage in Ferelden. Didn't even have water that didn't have piss in it or bread without big arse bugs in it. Spiders ain't the worst thing there."

Adaar makes a run to stop Sera, but it's too late; the elf opens the door wide, and there's a literal giant spider there, as tall as Inky and as wide as Iron Bull.

Sera hears a high pitched scream and wonders who it was that could scream that high, when she realizes that it's coming from Adaar.

The spider is big, brown, and hairy, looking at Sera with eight big, angry eyes. It bares it's front legs up, it's large fangs facing outwards sinisterly.

In one fluid motion, Sera leaps back and releases an arrow that slices through the air and embeds itself into the very middle of the spider's head. The beast's limbs flail in agony as Inky growls and tackles it right into the door, where the mabari swiftly and viciously tears into the wounded spider that spasms violently before it's legs go stiff and curl up.

Adaar hasn't stopped screaming the whole time.

Both Inky and Sera stare at her incredulously until the qunari's breath finally runs out and her screams are reduced to mere ragged breathing.

"Shit, Shit, Shit." Adaar swears, beginning to pace around the room with shaky hands that clutch her head tightly. "There's got to be more of them. The entire brood! Fuck."

She nervously grabs Sera's shoulders hard, her eyes darting around the room skittishly as her jaw quivers in horror. "We have to get out of here. Now." She says, heading towards the door.

She stops as she sees the mangled giant spider squished against the wooden door. She turns around and pleadingly looks at her lover. "Please get it out of the way."

* * *

><p>Finally, after banging on the door and yelling obscenities for a whole minute, the door opens and Adaar falls face first onto the stairs leading to the outside. The scouts and Harding wince as they watch the Herald unceremoniously roll down the stairs.<p>

Sera and Inky follow closely behind, both of them breathing hard.

Adaar aims her hand at the closed door and fires a cone of ice that effectively seals the door shut. She knows that spiders can't open doors, but she has to be vigilant, she reasons to herself.

"Um, are you okay?" Harding asks, raising her eyebrow awkwardly. "I made an announcement to not go in there, half an hour ago, I think. There's a giant spider infestation and they've laid eggs in there."

Adaar wobbles to her feet, feeling a little light in the head. "I know, Harding. I know."

"Oh, and Commander Cullen asked to see you. He says it's important."

"Okay." She stiffly replies.

"You're looking kind of... pale." Harding says, a little worry in her face. "Are you sick?"

"No, um, I'll just go see Cullen now." Adaar says, hurriedly walking up to Sera and shakily kissing her forehead. "I'll come see you afterwards."

Adaar scurries away while the scouts, including Harding, watch her leave and nearly trip on a branch in her hurry to see the commander.

And then the scouts turn to Sera, undoubtedly curious about the kiss, and the elf can feel the heat in her stomach slowly make its way towards her face. But she puts on her usual shit-eating grin to cover this up. "I got a nice catch, huh?"

* * *

><p>It's getting dark and Adaar hasn't come to see her yet. She puts her mug down and tells Harding and two other scouts that they'll drink together again some other time. She sets off to find a certain qunari so they can make out and <em>probably<em> so she can tease her a bit about the spiders.

When she walks into Adaar's tent, she's greeted by a very nice view.

Adaar has her back turned to her. The mage is sitting in a wooden tub filled with steaming water, her white hair wet and plastered to her broad, broad back. Sera's eyes light up at the sight of scars on the qunari's back, another evidence of her reckless fighting. The water rolls down the qunari's back enticingly as it moves in accord to her breathing.

"You get the spider guts off yet?" Sera asks, slowly walking towards the mage. She leans down and wraps her arms around Adaar's bare body and places an affectionate kiss to her shoulder. She kisses her way to her earlobe, sensually whispering, "Or you wanna continue where we left off, hm?"

"Sera." Adaar says flatly. She squeezes the elf's hand tensely. "They're going to make me the Inquisitor."

* * *

><p>Okay, based on the reviews, basically everyone wanted M rated scenes. So, should I put them here or put them in a separate story? It's your call :)<p>

Who wants Woof-worthy mage-warrior armor for Adaar? Tell me in the reviews ;)


	9. Crack Goes The Chair

Just two hours after I posted the last chapter, the exact same thing that happened to Adaar happened to me. Except it was a cockroach instead of a spider.

I'm going to drown my house in insecticides. FML.

* * *

><p>The voices from outside the tent are muffled, but Sera can still hear them.<p>

"Did that elf really go inside the Herald's tent?"

"I hear they're seeing each other."

"What? The Herald shouldn't be with a thief. A really rude one too."

More voices pour in from all around, but Sera just curses and blocks them out.

The steam from the hot water in the wooden tub fogs up the tent, the touch of Sera's hands to Adaar's back warming warming her fingers cozily. Sera tells herself for the fiftieth time since that morning to invest in a pair of gloves and warmer clothes. Gloves are annoying to shoot arrows with, but freezing her fingers off isn't any better, she decides.

Adaar's wide back rises and falls slowly as she tries to breathe calmly, despite the rapid sinking of her stomach as she says the word 'Inquisitor'.

"They want me to lead them?" Adaar groans lowly and buries her wet face in her large hands. Even then, she can feel the Anchor's spark inside her left palm, fizzling inside like some twisted magic, reminding her that it's still there and it's getting stronger, even after Corypheus tried to pry it off and failed in doing so.

_Damn, that hurt_. Adaar shudders, still feeling the phantom throbbing in her palm after it was nearly torn from her very being. It felt like Corypheus was trying to sever a limb from her soul and it hurt all the way from her palm, to her brain, and to every single nerve in her body.

Now it's fizzles in and out in her hand, so much destructive power that's triggered by only a wave of her hand. Although it gives her a measure of security to know that only she alone has this potentially calamitous ability, she slowly removes the hand from her face and stares. It's quite terrifying to know how this ability is what caused the unmarked graves of those who died defending the so called 'Herald of Andraste'.

"An entire army marching at my command, huh? With a throne and a big bedroom and all that." Adaar dryly chuckles.

"So you'll be the big hat now?" Sera brushes away a few strands of wet white hair from Adaar's cheek. "My job's safe then. Sleep with the top dog, get away with anythin'?" She tilts her head hopefully.

Adaar turns her head curiously, unfazed by her current naked state. The steam and water covers the 'good stuff' well, as Sera would put it. "And you're okay with me being one of the 'big people'?"

"Well, not if you're gonna be all stupid and shove your cod around." Sera scowls and picks up a bar of soap from the side of the tub. She holds it up to her nose and smells it, inhaling a vaguely milky scent mixed with a hint of vanilla. "Need some help, Buckles?"

Adaar nods and releases a contented sigh as Sera begins to soap her back with slow, circular motions. "If I become Inquisitor, I would probably have a lot of blood on my hands."

"As long as it's Coryphyshit's dangle-bag you're kicking, you can bet he's gonna get all my arrow in all his balls. All of 'em." Sera shrugs as her hands run over hard, taut back muscles that seem much too tense to be good. She reminds herself to get some of those nice smelling massage oils to take care of that. "What, you think you can't handle it?"

Adaar's muscles tense and her reflect the ounce of pain she feels every time she looks back to her confrontation with Corypheus as her fists tighten under the hot water. "Haven was a big blow."

"Thought we already talked about this, yeah? Big, crazy Coryphilis with a bunch of druggie muscleheads and a friggin' dragon. Sucker punched us, he did, but that ain't happening again." Sera says, as she splashes warm water on Adaar's back. The water trickles down enticingly down the bare back, wide and muscular from years of mercenary work and scarred from even more years of shitty barriers and healing. Sera takes the time to enjoy the view.

Adaar chuckles in response. "It's a lot of responsibility, Sera. I could end up like those nobles you hate so much."

Sera drops the soap in the water. Without a word, she walks around to Adaar's front, where the qunari pulls up her knees to conceal her breasts. The elf kneels down and looks at a pair of forest green eyes, wiping away the wet hair that sticks to Adaar's forehead.

"Sera?" Adaar asks inquisitively.

"Buckles." Sera simply says. "I'm not gonna stand for any butt on that eyeball throne except if it's your arse sitting on it. Your arse is nice, your head is too. I don't want some gold-grubbin' prick on that chair. I know what I said about how scary the green glowy thing and all the magic is, but fact is that we choose you."

"We?" Adaar raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, me and the soldiers and Cassandra and everyone else." Sera says, affectionately stroking the mage's wet cheek. "None of us said it, see, but there's that _oomph _in their eyes when they see you, yeah? Not because of the stupid Herald thing, but 'cause you stood out there with the biggest balls we've ever seen, and gave Coryphallus a big fat slap on the face with your dick. For us." Softly, she says, "I choose you."

Adaar sighs in relief, a relieved sigh on her worn out face. "I thought you'd break up with me if I was a mage _and_ one of the 'big people'."

"What?" Sera snorts and waves her hand dismissively that the idea. "Me? Break up with you?" She giggles as if Adaar had just said that nugs could fly.

"I've got no score to settle with _mages_, Buckles. Solas and Vivi both have broomsticks up their poopers, but you and Dorian's fine." She then runs her eyes down the contours of Adaar's muscled torso, partially hidden by the water. She likes what she sees. "You're _more_ than fine." She smirks. "I've got a problem with magic, 'cause it's scary and explosive and makes people stupid. And you becoming this Inquisitor thing's fine, so long as you don't act all noble-y and start stompin' people's toes."

It takes time for Adaar to process Sera's words of approval. "So no, I'm not breakin' up with you unless you do something _really_ stupid." The archer says, giving Adaar a comfortingly reassuring kiss on her lips.

"Damn," Adaar says between the movement of lips. "I guess I'd better not let you down, hm?"

"You better not." Sera says, giggling into the kiss. Her lips move slowly and soothingly against Adaar's and the Tal-Vashoth can feel her stiff muscles begin to relax with every one of Sera's warm breaths that slips past her lips.

When they part, Sera leans her forehead against Adaar's, and gives her one last peck. "Guess if you're the one barking orders around, my job is safe, yeah? I'd just bed you to get myself out of trouble."

Adaar chuckles, although her chest thumped faster at that last sentence. "In that case, I'll make sure to catch you the next time you hang Cassandra's undies on the flag."

* * *

><p>In the crowded yard, it takes ages for Adaar to finally find Leliana, who's gathered around a flimsy looking table. Her people are gathered in a circle around the table, undoubtedly discussing her next moves for her spies and network of secrets.<p>

"You are dismissed." Leliana says, after which the scouts respectfully nod and scatter away individually.

"Busy, aren't we?" Adaar asks, walking towards the former Chantry sister and placing both her hands on the rough wooden table.

"Herah," Leliana gives the qunari a tired smile. "Working hard or hardly working?"

"The latter." Adaar responds, wryly grinning. "But I'm hoping to change that soon. You said there's going to be a ceremony to officially make me the Inquisitor?"

"Yes, that's true." Leliana nods, sensing the tone of voice people usually use when they want something.

"I'm hoping to make some improvements to myself before that happens." Adaar says, looking straight into the spymaster's eyes. "I'm thinking some new armor, a new staff, and some trainers, if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't," Leliana says, the gears turning in her head. "I know some very good blacksmiths, and there's this dwarven enchanter I know who'd definitely be up to the task." She chuckles to herself. She hasn't seen Dagna in a long time and she wonders how the excitable dwarf is doing.

"And the trainers?"

"What kind?"

Sera and her other companions have always chided her to stop rushing into battle. She knows her armor is too light and that she'll be a prime target, but even the slightest cut on Blackwall's cheek or pained noise Bull hisses can send her bolting to the front lines. When it's Sera who gets cornered or hurt, she drops all her defenses and goes all out, unwisely and carelessly attacking at close range with a combination of both magic and her bladed staff. Thankfully, Sera's nimble and quick enough to avoid situations like that, or else Adaar would surely be in a casket and definitely not wandering around Skyhold like a mouse in a maze.

She usually ends up on a stretcher afterwards, to Sera and everyone else's worry. Dorian once joked that she's not a very good mage, given her terrible habit.

But given better barriers and better melee capabilities, she could be deadly at close range. Adaar's mind flickers back to Redcliffe, back to the dying red glow in Cassandra and Leliana's eyes. The dying red glow in _Sera's_ eyes, cracked skin, all skin and bones. She thinks back to Haven, cornered by Corypheus and his dragon, piles of mangled corpses littering the small but lovely place.

The choice is clear, really.

"Knight-Enchanter." Adaar says, firmly.

Leliana nods approvingly. "Good choice, Herah."

* * *

><p>By the time Adaar trudges back to camp, it's already dark. She lowers her head and flips open her tent flap, eager to finally sit down and rest her aching limbs. After her stunt with Sera and the spiders in the hold and having to stand still for an ungodly amount of time to give the blacksmith her measurements, the qunari is fairly sure she's ready to collapse on the spot.<p>

She grumbles, exhausted, and proceeds to sit on the much-too-small chair which seems ready to snap under her weight. She dips her quill in a container of ink and begins writing on a blank piece of paper, her head propped up on her hand as her elbow digs into the splintered wood of the old table.

She feels something on her neck and jumps, at the same time turning her head. A shard of ice stands ready in her palm, ready to strike out at the intruder.

Instead, her horns hit something with a painful-sounding _thunk_.

A hiss of pain. "Shit!"

Adaar's jaw clenches in guilt as she turns around and finds Sera on the ground, clutching her forehead painfully. Droplets of blood drip through her fingers, seeping through the tan brown of the tent floor. On her face is grimace that shows more shock than pain.

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry." Adaar says, quickly standing up with a look of worry. The flimsy chair is knocked over as she makes her way to her end table, grabbing a ratty old handkerchief.

"Shite, Buckles, ever thought of stabbin' people with those?" Sera mutters grumpily as Adaar hurriedly wipes away the drops of blood dripping down all the way from the elf's cut and to her chin.

"S-Sorry." Adaar replies, uncharacteristically unable to pull out a quip or two from her head. She brushes away Sera's uneven bangs, closely surveying the wound. It's dark red with blood that's slowly flowing out, wide and torn. "It's pretty deep, but I think I can close it."

Sera gives Adaar a fearful glare. "What, I thought you couldn't do shit with needles and threads."

Adaar gives Sera an exaggeratedly insulted look. "My healing isn't _that_ bad now, Sera. I'm pretty sure Vivienne's given up on me and I _know_ Solas has been getting headaches every time I bother him to teach me, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Someone's got to patch up your scrapes, after all."

"Heh," Sera grins, a small wince at the stinging on her forehead. "Gettin' jealous of Dorian going all hands on, huh?"

"No, I actually just want an excuse to get _my_ hands on _you_." Adaar bluntly says, an unabashed smirk on her face. Her hand hovers over the tear, a warm glow nicely starting to close it ever so slowly. "That, and you always look like you're drinking bad milk whenever Solas or Vivienne even goes near you."

"That's why you've been nerding out with Egghead and Vivi, all alone with 'em in the library?"

Adaar nods as she continues the spell, noticing the growing flush on Sera's face. The mage smirks and decides to prod a little further. "I don't like seeing my girlfriend hurt."

"That's... sweet." Sera curtly says, feeling her cheeks warm as Adaar halts the spell and gives her forehead a chaste kiss.

"You're weird." Adaar whispers when she briefly connects her lips with Sera's. "People usually blush when things go all hot and steamy." She sits down and smiles proudly at the blush on Sera's face. "I've seen the looks, the blushes when I give you little presents and when I kissed your in front of the soldiers."

"Shut up." Sera lightly shoves the qunari, standing up and approaching the table with her back turned. "Takin' care of me when I'm sick, gettin' Solas to patch my scrapes up, kissing me in front of the soldiers. You're killing me with all this nice you've been doing."

"I only kissed your forehead, Sera." Adaar chuckles lightly.

Sera forcefully turns around with a rare look of timidity. She balls her fists nervously as she avoids Adaar's eyes. "Yeah, but now they know we're _together_ together, y'know?"

"So... you want us to be a secret?" Adaar asks, disappointedly slumping her shoulders.

"Fuck, no," Sera immediately says upon seeing Adaar's deflating figure. "I just didn't think you'd want everyone to know we sleep together, yeah?"

"Sleeping together, yes, but not having sex, unfortunately." Adaar remarks, although she stands up and reassuringly puts a large hand on Sera's shoulder. "And why wouldn't I want people to know I'm taken, and by you, no less?"

Sera snorts derisively and once again turns her back to avoid the qunari's gaze, shaking off the large hand in the process. "You know I piss off people. They talk 'bout how a thief ain't even supposed to be in this place, and the holy _Herald_," Sera says the word with absolute disdain. "Shouldn't be sharin' her bed with a broke elf who lives in a shitty tavern." She begins to pace around the tent, her voice going higher and louder. "So yeah, maybe you'd wanna keep it a dirty little secret, buttering me up real nice, a prick city elf who hasn't got two gold coins to rub together since I spend all the coin I stole on arrows, food and drinks."

"Whoa, there." Adaar holds up her hands and shakes her head. She walks over to Sera, who still has her back facing her, and wraps her arms around the elf without hesitation. She feels Sera squirm in embarrassment, but she doesn't let go. "Well, I like you. A lot. Whoever doesn't agree with me probably forgot about how this 'no good thief' is one of the reasons why we've got enough coin to feed everyone." She says, pressing a small kiss to Sera's ear. It quickly turns red at the affectionate touch, making the Tal-Vashoth swell with delight. "You're too good for me to keep this a secret."

"Well, I'm steppin' up my game." Sera mutters as Adaar slowly picks her up and sits on the dangerously flimsy chair. "I'm not gonna be _that _girlfriend who's too shitty to keep up."

Adaar gently lets Sera down on her lap and picks up the quill again, continuing the letter. Her other hand strokes her lover's back fondly as a pair of arms wrap around her neck and a pair of lips meet her jaw. "You don't care about what people say, Sera. I don't too, so you can stop worrying about me caring about what they're saying about you."

Sera grumbles in agreement as she continues pressing light kisses along the side of Adaar's face, making the qunari release a small and joyful chuckle. "When I kissed your neck earlier, you thought it was a spider, didn't you?" She asks, smirking.

Adaar coughs awkwardly. "Maybe."

"That's cute. Big, strong Buckles is scared of an itty bitty spider."

"I would avoid kissing my neck without warning me first next time, if I were you."

Sera turns her head curiously at the letter on the table. "What are you writing?"

"Oh, it's a letter to my old mercenary group." Adaar replies, nervously fidgeting with the quill. "I've been giving them odd jobs lately, but they're... coming to visit."

"Do they have big, strong qunari women like you?" Sera asks, suggestively wriggling her eyebrows.

"Yes. But none of them are as good looking as I am." Adaar says, puffing up her chest proudly. "Besides, if any of them even try to grab your ass, they're going to have an icicle up theirs. I don't care if they're like family."

"Might be worth it to try, get you all jealous and grabby." Sera grins, pulling at Adaar's collar.

"Don't you dare." Adaar softly laughs, before she leans in for a kiss.

And then the flimsy chair gives way with a loud crack. Somewhere from across the camp, Cole wonders where the loud string of curses came from.

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><p>Are you ready, guys? This is the last T rated chapter.<p>

THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL START OUR VOYAGE TO M RATED STUFF. ARE YOU READY?


	10. Pleasant Dreams

ON WITH THE M GUYS. From this point on, the story will get increasingly NSFW until the glorious smut happens ;)

**Sorry for reposting, but I thought you guys would want to see the little present I have waiting for you at the bottom of this page ;). Since you guys have supported me a lot throughout these 10 chapters, I thought it would only be fair.**

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><p>"Buckles..."<p>

Everything feels hazy. Adaar would tell herself that it's all a dream, except it's all too real and all too good to be one.

She's in her bed, in her new room in the highest point of Skyhold. The curtains are drawn shut, effectively blocking out any sunlight from outside, but somehow she knows that it's a pleasant, sunny morning that she's going to spend in the best way possible.

Sera's arms are alluringly draped around her shoulders. The elf, clad only in a brassiere and a pair of panties made from the finest red Orlesian silks, straddles Adaar's hips with a tempered hunger in her eyes that sends a shiver all the way down from the mage's spine to her loins.

The wood in the fireplace crackles with flame, coating the room in a warm orange glow. The light flatters Sera's curves very nicely; it highlights the definition of her bow-strengthened arms and shoulders, the flat and muscled stomach, and the cleavage that's delightfully close to Adaar's face. It occurs to the qunari that only those silks are keeping her from the creamy skin beneath, the skin that she wants to feel with more and more fervor as she watches Sera's breasts rise and fall with every slow breath she takes.

Without their eyes ever breaking contact, Sera's hand reaches behind her and unclasps her bra with one deliberately slow, practiced movement. Her other hand slowly guides Adaar's quivering hand up her toned stomach to the flesh of her breasts, under the fabric that's just one flick away from showing Adaar exactly she wants to see.

Adaar's breath hitches and her heart begins to thump in her chest as she begins to tentatively knead the soft mound between her fingers. She may not be able to feast her eyes just yet on Sera's bare flesh, but touching is just as good, she decides. Sera's hand slowly drags Adaar's other hand over the skin of her abdomen until they reach her panties. The tips of the large, long fingers slip under the smooth silk of her panties and onto the velvety skin that's painfully close to Sera's wet center.

But then Sera stops. She leans forward, her lips grazing Adaar's earlobe, letting out a hot breath that sets Adaar's conscious aflame with lust.

"Let me in, Buckles." She husks.

Adaar smiles warmly. "Nice try. Not."

Sera chuckles and removes herself from Adaar's hold. Long, spiral horns grow on her head, curving inside as her skin turns into an otherworldly purple. Caramel eyes turn to sinful magenta and her lithe body morphs into a taller, curvier figure.

"I'll be back." The desire demon smiles wickedly, and starts to fade.

And Adaar wakes up. Of course, she's not in a comfortable bed with a warm fire. Sera's not draped over her, daring her to stick her hands down her pants. Instead, she's in her tent, sleeping in a painfully hard mattress, lying on her side to stop her horns from giving her a bad crick in the neck after a night's sleep, and Sera is snoring slightly as she buries her face in Adaar's collarbone. She's wearing a ratty old shirt and baggy pants. No sexy Orlesian lingerie in sight.

But that still doesn't cool the heat in Adaar's pants.

_Damn demons_. She curses in her head. Sighing disappointedly, she runs her fingers over the definitely not silky fabric of Sera's old shirt, stopping herself when she realizes she doesn't feel anything beneath it.

Adaar's breath catches. _She's not wearing a bra._

"Nice dream, Buckles?"

Adaar chuckles almost pathetically and gives Sera's forehead a chaste kiss. "You can say that."

"Was it a sexy dream?" Sera teasingly asks, raising her head.

Anyone else would call it a bedhead, but Adaar's current state insists that even Sera's hilariously messy hair is instead a case of really hot, mussed up sex hair. She considers shaking her head to shed those thoughts off, knowing that her train of thought will probably not end very well.

It's the day she'll officially become the Inquisitor, after all, and she shouldn't be late. Or get caught with her hand down her pants, or Sera's.

But Adaar forces a calm smile. "What gave me away?"

"You were bein' all gropey and mutterin' in your sleep. Touching my tits and all." Sera says, with a self-satisfied smirk. "Must've been a nice dream, yeah?"

Adaar blushes and wisely decides not to tell Sera about the desire demon. "Of course. I'm disappointed that I woke up, in fact." She says, managing to force herself to leave the mattress.

She yawns and stretches and leaves the tent without a word, muscling the willpower to prevent herself from turning around and attempting to find out if she can go further than she did in her dream.

She forces herself to think of something disgusting. Nothing comes up, and she groans.

Maybe no one will notice if she has a little time to herself in the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Sera is Sera, so she doesn't even bother knocking before she walks into the room like she owns the place. She arrives just in time to see Adaar's figure behind a conveniently placed curtain, sitting on a chair, doing something to her face.<p>

"Come to give me a pep talk?" Adaar turns around and gives Sera a nervous smile that's rarely ever seen on her face. Her face is decorated with her half finished bone-white vitaar.

Sera approaches Adaar's spot impatiently, excitedly grinning. "Heard from Josie that you got some fancy pants smithy to whip up somethin' special."

"Stop right there."

Sera frowns. "What?"

"Stop right there." Adaar turns back to the mirror and continues applying her vitaar. Sera can hear the giddiness in her voice. "I want to see your reaction and savor it."

"This better be good." Sera crosses her arms impatiently, although she can't help the grin that's slowly growing in width on her face.

"Oh, trust me, you won't be able to resist my roguish charms when you see this." Adaar chuckles, standing up. Sera can see the silhouette of the qunari fixing her clothes on the mirror and tidying her hair.

Sera taps her foot in anticipation. "Hurry it up, already!"

Adaar smirks at the elf's impatience and brings the curtain to the side with a pull of the hand. "So impatient, are we?"

Sera can't answer.

The dark brown leather of Adaar's long coat blocks the light from the other side of the curtain, but when the Tal-Vashoth steps forward into the natural light by the window, Sera finds herself absolutely speechless.

Adaar is dressed a dark brown leather coat that's held in place by a wide, darker brown belt around her hips that's accented by a pair of black pants that disappear underneath her greaves. Her feet aren't the only parts clad in metal; her shoulders, arms, and chest are clad in a matching set of shoulder-pads, gauntlets, and chest plate that are all made of well-forged metals that fit her coat very nicely. The gauntlets' fingers end in pointed tips, combining with the long dark coat and the bone-white vitaar to create quite the foreboding image.

Sera once saw a qunari mage once, during a visit to Kirkwall. His horns had been cut off and his mouth had been sewn shut, his face concealed by a bronze mask. The archer can't deny the resemblance of the patterns on Adaar's vitaar with the Saarebas' mask.

Adaar's tall, even by qunari standards, but she looks even bigger now. The new metals adorning her armor do a terrific job of making her look that much more imposing, and Sera can't shake off how the shoulder-pads bring out the broadness of the mage's shoulders. Underneath the vitaar, Sera can still make out the slight indents of Adaar's various facial scars.

As if that's not enough, the combination of the dark colors of her armor and and the bone white of her vitaar allows Adaar's striking forest green eyes to stand out.

Any normal person would find the sight quite intimidating. An incredibly tall qunari mage, Knight-Enchanter in training, with armor that seems to fit a warrior more than a mage. The hand that can manipulate the Fade and the scars from years of rough battles. But Sera, although surprised, isn't the least bit alarmed by how absolutely turned on she is.

Wide, strong, tall, and scarred is exactly her type.

Sera realizes that she's probably making a hilarious face because Adaar's smirking in a way that shows she's very satisfied with her reaction.

"Sorry, I know the scars drive you wild, but they really hurt and I'd prefer not to get some more." Adaar inwardly chuckles. She confidently walks up to Sera and uses her two fingers to tilt up the archer's jaw, which is opened nearly to the point of being unhinged. "I guess you really like women in heavy armor this much, eh?"

Sera's brain goes blank. She whistles as she looks Adaar down from top to bottom with a hazy-eyed gaze. "Woof." She husks, her feet guiding her closer to her object of affection, eyes darkened with lust.

That one word goes straight to Adaar's pants.

Despite her mind quickly spiraling into the gutter, Adaar proudly smiles at the attention. "I was hoping I'd get that reaction from you."

Sera motions for Adaar to get down to her level. "You tryin' to get me to bed, Buckles? 'Cause it's working." She lowly chuckles as Adaar leans down to give her a slow kiss. "It's workin' real fine."

Adaar merely smiles mischievously into the kiss as she leans down, gently pulling the elf closer as their lips move together with unrestrained desire. A low hum of approval escapes Adaar's throat as the tip of Sera's tongue grazes her lower lip, seeking an entrance that she's been craving for months and months of pent up passion.

With surprising strength, Sera manages to push Adaar towards the vanity table where she previously applied her vitaar. The qunari wastes no time in reversing their positions, hoisting Sera up onto the sturdy wooden table to make their difference in height less of a nuisance. Sera eagerly greets Adaar's tongue with her own as Adaar parts her legs and pushes her farther onto the table.

Knock. Knock.

A male voice. "Herald, Commander Cullen and Seeker Pentaghast has asked me to fetch you."

Adaar groans. "Tell them I'm coming. Thank you."

"Very well, Herald."

A pleasant silence fills the room as the soldier's footsteps fade away.

"So I'm the big boss' girl, yeah?" Sera giggles, speaking in a low voice like she's whispering a well-kept secret.

"You'd better not start calling me Inky, or else we'll have problems." Adaar chuckles, giving Sera's lips a quick peck.

"Hey, can I get a raise after this?"

Adaar grins devilishly. "Only in exchange for more sexual favors than you can count."

Sera presses her lips to Adaar's slowly and intently. When she parts their lips, she gives the qunari a strikingly honest look. "I'll do that for free."

"I'll be waiting after the ceremony, then." Adaar grins, barely able to hide the glee in her voice. She raises her hand and cups Sera's breast, giving it a good squeeze. She regrets putting on her gauntlets; feeling the flesh with her bare hands would have been much more preferable. She looks straight into Sera's eyes. "Just sampling the goods." She smiles innocuously.

"Your room's done, yeah? You're sleepin' there tonight?"

"Now that you mention it, yes." Adaar chuckles. She gives Sera a small yet promising kiss. "Join me?"

Sera claps her hands together and snickers. "Woo! Sex tonight!"

It takes everything Adaar has to not push Sera back up against the table.

* * *

><p>"Today, we are not here to choose a leader, for we already have one." Cassandra says, a hint of pride and admiration in her controlled voice. "The one who has already been leading it in all but name. The one who has stood bravely for us against all odds."<p>

The crowd stirs, the sounds accompanied only by the small clinks of Adaar's greaves as she makes her way up the stone stairs. Only Cassandra and Leliana are close enough to notice her trembling hands and the nervous flicker in her eyes.

Adaar sends them both a worried glance, as if asking for help, at which Cassandra responds with a small nod and Leliana gives her a slight reassuring smile.

Adaar takes a deep breath, trying to steady her shaking hands. She tries to speak, but her tongue is numb and stiff.

The silence is crippling.

"A cause is nothing without a purpose to unite it," Adaar finally manages to speak. "For a time, we stood in the dark, but now we have found our enemy, and his name is Corypheus. You call me your Herald, but I wish to be more than that." She holds her head high and walks confidently down the stairs, meeting every pair of eyes she sees with her own. "I stand here as a member of the Inquisition. We are soldiers, mages, thieves, ambassadors, templars, mercenaries, and many more. But we are also comrades, siblings, lovers, and parents as well." She walks past many faces, all of them gazing up at her in awe.

"We gather here, the brightest of our generation, united under a single banner, standing on the sacrifices of our fallen brothers and sisters." She stamps her staff down on the ground. "From this day onwards, we stand together." She plants her feet firmly on the ground. "Whoever we were before, we are now the Inquisition!"

The crowd applauds.

"Commander," Cassandra turns to Cullen. "Will they follow?"

Cullen faces the soldiers, the servants, the mages, everyone. "Inquisition, will you follow?" He raises his voice.

The crowd erupts in a deafening cheer.

Cullen makes his way up onto the platform, where his hand settles on the hilt of his sword. "Will you fight?"

His question is replied with an enthusiastic applaud.

"Will we triumph?" He asks, his hold on his sword's hilt growing stronger.

The applaud grows louder.

"Then it has been chosen," Cullen unsheathes his sword and raises it high above his head. "You leader, your Herald, your Inquisitor!"

Sera doesn't know how Adaar manages to do it, but the qunari's eyes meets hers even in the clamor of the crowd. She makes her way over slowly, accepting congratulations and shaking hands. But her eyes never leave Sera's.

It only occurs to Sera now that this is her lover standing there, tall and proud, the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor who had sparked the loyalty of their forces by facing down a darkspawn magister for them. For her.

Sera's heart swells so big she feels like it's going to burst out, as cliche as it may sound.

It's clear in Adaar's head. She'll walk up to Sera, sweep her off her feet in a searing kiss, then carry her up to her new room and make her purr. The grin on Adaar's face widens as she closes the gap between them, but it soon disappears when Cassandra pulls her off to the side and drags her away.

* * *

><p>The soldiers gather around the opened box. A foul stench fills Adaar's nostrils as the soldiers carry away the bloody dwarf's body away.<p>

"It arrived just after the ceremony." Cassandra tells her.

She wrinkles her nose. That dwarf had been in the box for quite a while.

The crowd gathers around the box, although they keep their distance as they whisper amongst themselves. Cullen dismisses them after he sends a soldier to fetch Leliana, but it does nothing to defuse the tension.

When Inky begins to frantically bark at the box, Sera pinches her nose as she tentatively picks up a neat scrap of paper, strategically placed under it's lid to avoid being soiled by the blood.

"_Sleeping your way to the top?"_

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><p><strong>Ten reviews says I update in 3 days instead of a week ;)<strong>

**As a thank you for supporting me so far, anyone who reviews over the 100 review mark will have a prompt of their choosing (include it in the review) for me to include in the next one or two chapters. Anything is fair game, from having Vivienne in a chicken outfit or something smutty or whatever you want.**


	11. Stupid Tunic

**So... This story has just hit the 100th review mark, and I'm so damn happy. Thanks for reading and following/favoriting and reviewing, and enjoy!**

**Also, I've received the prompts and I'm working on them right now. They'll be up on Valentine's Day ;)**

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><p>"'Sleeping your way to the top?' is a very specific message." Leliana frowns as she fingers the scrap of paper in her hands.<p>

Maybe it's because of the somberly tone in Leliana's voice, but the war room feels heavy and stuffy. Or perhaps it just feels like that all the time; Sera wouldn't know, because it's her first time stepping inside the room. On the large and heavy table at the center of the room lie two maps, one of Ferelden, and one of Orlais.

_Why don't they even have chairs?_ Sera thinks.

She doesn't like the room. The air is tense and serious, fitting for a room where the fates of many are decided by daggers and markers on maps. The atmosphere weighs heavily of responsibility, and she doesn't enjoy it one bit. She wonders how Adaar stands weighing in all the options and prattling around with her advisors here, every single day.

"However, I've managed to track the source of our anonymous sender." Leliana says, setting the note down on the war table.

"That was fast," Adaar nods in admiration. "The box only arrived, what, an hour ago?"

Sera gives the spymaster an uncharacteristically weak grin. "Show me how you do all this stuff some time, yeah?"

"It doesn't take a genius to recognize the seal of Orlais' most reputable shipping company, I'm afraid." Leliana smiles dryly. "Nor does it take much to recognize the royal seal."

"That fancy blue thing on the side of the box, you mean?" Sera frowns and curses under her breath. "I've seen it around. Them letters from the Empress' bunch always has one on 'em."

Adaar tells herself to ask Sera why she knows what the royal seal looks like, later. "By the royal seal, are we talking about the Empress' royal court?"

"The one and only." Leliana nods. "I trust you know what this means."

"Our lovely anonymous isn't interested in staying anonymous." Adaar strokes her chin in deep thought. "In other words, 'Come and get me'. Quite ballsy."

"Exactly." Leliana nods, then clicks her tongue in annoyance. "Do you remember the note that came with the trap you encountered before the Redcliffe incident? And the servant girl with the poisoned pastry?"

Sera shudders, remembering the sharp pierce of the arrow on her leg. "I damn remember it."

"I believe it's from the same sender."

"I thought so too." Adaar comments. "Blatantly obvious tracks, similar handwritings, knowing things that not many should know about. It all points to the same person."

Leliana gives Adaar a wary look. "Things that not many should know about?"

"They knew we were after that stash when the trap was sprung, knew what we bought in the bakery at Redcliffe," Adaar crosses her arms. "And judging from our little present today, they know that the two of us are going to bed together."

"Talk about fuckin' creepy," Sera scowls. "This keeps up and I'll be on my toes even when I'm pissing."

Leliana's eyes twinkle with an amusement that seems to fit a gossiping tavern girl more than a spymaster. "The two of you haven't exactly been subtle, judging from how much the servants and soldiers have been talking." The Nightingale nods faintly. "I'm going to need to send out some of my people to investigate this. Do narrow down the possibilities of suspects, and meet me later. I'll update our security with the new information we have."

Adaar nods and smiles. "You're right. I shouldn't keep Cassandra waiting."

"In that case, I'll see you both later." Leliana says, with a small smile.

The door to the war room shuts with a thud and Sera sighs heavily. Adaar looks down at her curiously.

"Sovereign for your thoughts?" She asks, giving Sera a concerned smile. "You've been pretty quiet since the box arrived."

"It's just shitty is all." Sera says dismissively, although her crossed arms and avoidance of Adaar's eyes hint that she's not telling the qunari everything. "Sorry, Buckles, I don't really wanna talk about it now." She says, turning around and wrapping her arms around the qunari's torso tightly. She frowns when the chest plate stops her from nuzzling into Adaar's collar.

"Then let me cheer you up." Adaar says, softly stroking the archer's short blonde hair. "Let's go to the courtyard. Cassandra's waiting."

* * *

><p>The sounds of clanging metal and tired grunts come to a halt as a small crowd of soldiers gather around Cassandra and Adaar. Sera sits on the roof of the tavern, effectively having a wholesome view of the two women.<p>

Adaar holds a practice longsword in one hand, sharp enough to hurt yet dull enough to not pierce armor. Her hair is tied up into a ponytail and she's wearing her full set of armor. She gives the sword a few practice swings and looks back at the watching soldiers.

"If I die, please scrape me off the ground and look for my will in the top drawer of my desk." She flatly says, to the chuckles and snickers of the soldiers.

Cassandra's shield is poised at her side while her sword is relaxedly held in her other hand. The woman lightly smiles at Adaar's words. "We're going to need a bigger shovel to do that." She says, planting her feet firmly on the ground.

It might not seem like it to anyone else, but for Adaar, Cassandra seems so much bigger from where she's standing. It wasn't so just five seconds ago, but the moment she takes her fighting stance, her presence swells up almost terrifyingly. She looks at the qunari like a predator preparing to pounce take down a cornered animal.

The sight makes Adaar hesitates for a second, which is more than enough time for Cassandra to lunge.

She's terrifyingly fast, despite her heavy armor and shield. Her sword slices through the air crisply and Adaar just manages to block it with her own sword, her entire body vibrating with the force of the impact. A loud _clang_ pierces the air as their swords collide.

Adaar's eyes meet Cassandra's, and a cold shiver runs down from her spine to her feet as she meets the Seeker's calculating yet fiery gaze.

Only three times before has a fight drawn that reaction: when she was bound in chains and forced to use blood magic to escape a fate as a Saarebas, during the fight against Alexius in Redcliffe (although she was shivering more out of rage than of fear), and when she stared down Corypheus and his Archdemon amongst the ruins of Haven, alone.

Yet this one warrior can send cold sweats pouring down her forehead with one swing of her sword. _She really is something_, Adaar thinks and grins.

The two women slowly circle each other, both eyeing the other carefully and poised to strike. The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife.

Cassandra lunges forward with a strike, Adaar leaping forward shortly afterwards. For several moments, the sound of metal clashing against metal fills the silent courtyard as both seasoned fighters switch back and forth between offense and defense. Adaar manages to dodge several swings far too closely for her liking, nearly flinching as the tip of Cassandra's blade comes dangerously close to her cheek. She counters Cassandra's strikes with short ranged bursts of magic, some of which are partially hitting the Seeker with dumbed down power to prevent unnecessary injuries. Cassandra's own strikes are opportunistic, quick, and strong. Complementing her shield bashes and parries are an arsenal of jabs and swings that cut through the air with sharp sounds, some of them making their way to Adaar's sides and torso before the warrior tenses her hand and pulls back slightly to avoid piercing armor. The qunari moves with precision, knowing that one swing too wide or even one unbalanced step will surely be the cause of a very painful lesson for her.

Adaar's leg muscles begin to burn in protest as she forces sudden dodging movements to avoid Cassandra's relentless assault. With her breathing ragged and her arm shaking slightly from the sheer amount of power she has to absorb while blocking, beads of cold sweat trail down her face while she slowly realizes that she's trapped in a tornado, and Cassandra is the eye of the storm. The Seeker herself is a tempered force of nature with her steely eyes concealing the furious storm beneath.

The mage sprays a cone of fire to Cassandra's face, which she repels effectively by raising her shield. Stray embers scatter, and Adaar smiles ever so slightly.

According to plan, she thinks, as she gives her sword a compact stab at Cassandra's side. But then the Nevarran turns her body ever so slightly, and her sword misses by just a hair. Cassandra raises her shield and charges before Adaar can pull her sword back.

Scowling, Adaar conjures a barrier in her free hand and lunges forward to meet Cassandra's charge with one of her own. A loud clang fills the air as the two women collide like two dueling bulls. A few impressed sounds escape the soldiers' mouths as Adaar's feet leave the ground for a fraction of a second as her balance is sent askew by Cassandra's forward momentum.

A bout of electricity forces Cassandra to halt and raise her shield once more, although the gesture is done slightly late, making her wince as the bolt travels through her shield and forces her muscles to tremor and shake.

As Cassandra stops in her tracks, Adaar swings her sword at Cassandra's side. However, doubt festers in her mind when Cassandra doesn't attempt to block or parry. Instead, the warrior simply thrusts her sword forward, the blunt tip clinking against Adaar's chest plate and finally tipping her over.

Her step had been just a little too wide.

Cassandra's sword moves between her eyes, and the qunari is left staring at the tip of the blade in surrender.

A clap comes from one of the soldiers, followed by more and more. Cassandra smiles and nods, sheathing the sword and offering a hand to Adaar.

"I'm impressed, Herah." Cassandra closes her hand around Adaar's larger one and pulls the Tal-Vashoth up.

"I should be the one saying that," Adaar chuckles and wipes the dust from her pants. "I was on the verge of pissing my pants."

Cassandra lightly laughs at this as she wipes the sweat from her brow. "I have one question."

"Shoot."

"Why didn't you switch to a ranged offense?" Cassandra asks, curiously. "You had the chance and it would have put you at an advantage."

"I needed to work on my melee range, and don't deny it; I know I would've ended up on the ground a lot sooner if we weren't sparring." Adaar tilts her head to Sera, who's jumping down from the roof and walking towards her direction. "And my girlfriend told me to stop getting hit in the face during battles."

A soft smile graces Cassandra's normally harsh face. "That's... Really quite sweet."

"Yeah, now you just need to stop getting hurt, period." Sera comments, playfully punching Adaar's chest.

"Why don't you take Cassandra on and try saying that to my face?" Adaar says, jokingly shuddering at the warrior's direction.

Cassandra can't help giving the two women an affectionate look as she watches Sera and Adaar walk towards the hold, arguing loudly and animatedly as the mage teases her about her comparatively short height. Sera retaliates by throwing up her middle finger in the air, nearly poking out a nearby soldier's eye.

* * *

><p>Adaar plops down face first into her bed, her hair slightly wet from a fresh warm bath. The qunari's weight makes the bed creak and Sera bounce slightly as she cozily lounges on one side of the brand new bed.<p>

Sera giggles and stretches herself like a cat. "You put on a nice show earlier, you did. "

"Glad to know that the sight of Cassandra pounding me mercilessly amuses you." Adaar says, her voice muffled as she lies face down on the sheets.

Sera hears the innuendo, but instead of breaking out into a guffaw like she would usually do, she just chuckles softly with a stiff smile.

"Why the long face?" Adaar asks, scooting closer to the elf.

"Nothing." Sera curtly says, crossing her arms. She says the first thing that comes to her mind: "Thought you took me up here to fuck, not just talk."

Adaar chuckles. "Honestly, are you feeling up for sex right now?" She confidently asks, knowing the answer.

Sera sighs and doesn't say anything.

"You knew him, didn't you? The dead dwarf in the box."

Sera nods wordlessly. "I met him in Highever once. Offered me and a friend a place to stay. He made really good pies."

Adaar slowly moves her arm over Sera's shoulder and gives it a warm squeeze. Her large hands completely envelop Sera's shoulders, guiding the elf closer. "Was he in your network?"

Sera nods again.

Knowing that the archer is in no mood for words, Adaar settles for tracing circles on her shoulder with her thumb.

"Tits, it's so unfair." Sera clenches her fists tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. "I'm supposed to be doin' this to keep the little people out of the fight, not friggin' drag them into it!"

"Sera-"

Sera shrugs off Adaar's arm and jumps off the bed. "Don't tell me to forget him either! I don't care if I haven't seen him for years, I'm not gonna just leave it there like nothing happened!"

"I never said-"

The archer begins to pace around the room, her voice increasing in volume. "He's got nothin' to do with whatever I did to piss people off! They should've went after me-"

Adaar grabs the city elf's shoulder and turns her around. "Sera."

Sera looks down as both Adaar's hands settle on her shoulders with a comforting warmth. She balls her fists in Adaar's shirt, wanting so much to bury her face in her chest and have kind, soothing words whispered in her ear. "I... never wanted this to happen." She croaks. "We were just supposed to stick it up to those uppity nobles and have a little fun, get paid, stuff like that. No one's supposed to die 'cause I buttfucked some rich tit's jewelry box. Hell, I've pissed off too many fuckers to even know which one's after me this time." She sighs, that simple act so full of regret. "I was stupid to think this wouldn't happen."

When she feels Sera start to tremble, Adaar doesn't hesitate to pull the shorter woman into a hug, firm and strong.

"Buckles?" Sera asks, voice shaking with realization.

"Yes?"

"I really fucked up this time. Finally bit off a bit too much, yeah?" Sera laughs almost derisively. "Look at you, leadin' this bunch and really making changes and all that shit. I'm just throwin' rocks and hoping I hit something hard enough to make it fall."

Adaar wants to say that it's not her fault, that she hasn't done anything wrong, but she doesn't do it because that would be a lie. It's true that Sera's lack of foresight is just about incredible; she pokes sleeping bears and runs away before she gets caught. But no one can avoid getting caught, especially with Sera's provocations and lack of subtleity. And this time, it finally caught up to her- or rather, it finally caught up to someone innocent.

"I'm not going to tell you to forget about him." Adaar finally says, after moments of gloomy silence. "I've had too many people die for me, Sera, even before all this Inquisition business. I want to say that I had to do it, but sometimes I was just a selfish asshole. I think about them every time before I go to sleep, Sera, but we can't change the past." She squeezes Sera's shoulder as her voice softens with what seems like guilt. "The best we can do is carry their weight with us. Remember them every time you fight, every time you make a decision, because you're not living just for yourself anymore; you're living for them too."

Sera looks at Adaar with disgust. "What, so you're sayin' that I should just lie down and deal with it?"

"No." Adaar firmly says. Her eyes darken with a rage that Sera's seldom seen before. "Be a terror, don't let them forget what they did. An arm for an arm, a leg for a leg. Let them know they can't brush off what they did."

"But what am I supposed to do?" Sera looks up pleadingly, her caramel eyes full of desperation. "I can't go around and fuck with those arsekissers no more. Not if I know someone else is gonna get it 'cause of me." She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. "I hate sayin' it, but I'm just a prick with a bow. How am I supposed to do anythin' else but stick a finger up their asses and hope I don't get caught?"

"That's the part where you're wrong."

Sera frowns. "If you're tellin' me that I'm making a difference no matter what, then you're full of shit. I've been doin' this since before I knew what a twat was and look what happened."

"You're not just a prick with a bow-"

"Yeah, yeah, everyone's special and all that bull-"

"There's also the Inquisitor, the big and scary qunari mage, and all the people and resources I can take in my big grubby hands."

Sera looks at the Tal-Vashoth dumbly for a second. "What?"

"You heard me right." Adaar cockily smiles and tilts up Sera's chin. "Me and all the people and resources I can get my hands on. I'm giving your organization official Inquisition support. Secretly, of course," She raises a finger to her lips as if telling her to keep a secret. "It _is_ a spy network, after all."

"What?" Sera asks, louder this time.

"With Inquisition support, we can secure safe communications with the rest of your associates while maintaining it's secrecy. We can also post lookouts and such, to make sure they're-"

"Shut up." Sera grabs Adaar's lapel and roughly pulls the qunari down to her height, cutting her words off. "You're too good to be true, you know that?"

Although surprised by the sudden yank, Adaar manages to stay upright despite her leg muscles still slightly shaky from her spar with Cassandra. "Is that a yes?"

Sera nods, pulling Adaar into an impossibly strong hug for someone so much smaller than the tall qunari. "You're the best."

"You've never seen me in a kitchen, obviously." Adaar chuckles, placing her hand on the small of Sera's back.

"Buckles." Sera firmly says.

"Hmm? You're not curious about how the Inquisition will-"

Sera gives her an impish grin and pushes Adaar back. The back of her knees meet the edge of the bed as she topples onto the sheets with surprise plainly written all over her face. Without moving, she watches as Sera slowly crawls her way up, her lithe body ever so slightly brushing over Adaar's as she trawls until her face is a mere inch away from the mage's.

"I see." Adaar props herself up on her elbows and smirks. "Impatient, are we?"

"Shut up." Sera says, before her mouth closes in on Adaar's.

Adaar's arms hook over Sera's shoulders to pull her down as their lips mesh together with a hunger that can only come from months and months of yearning. Sera's fingers thread through locks of thick white hair while Adaar's feel their way around Sera's slim waist. When their tongues meet, neither of them can feel the cold nip in the air anymore. Tongues slide against each other zealously as the heat from their bodies send both women's cheeks flushing with desire.

Adaar's hand closes in on the curve of Sera's butt, giving it a squeeze as her other hand fumbles around, roughly trying to slide down the tunic. She curses under her breath as the laces that are keeping Sera's breasts away from her refuse to give in.

Sera smirks at Adaar's desperation and begins to teasingly undo the laces at a painfully slow pace, relishing in the stirring desire in Adaar's forest green eyes as the growing thirst brews in the pit of her stomach like a coiled knot.

Adaar's breath hitches as her eyes feast on the first hint of cleavage when the laces begin to unravel, Sera's breasts rising and falling as she breathes. She impatiently reaches for the mounds, kneading with her two large hands entirely enveloping the clothed flesh.

Just before the last lace comes undone, Sera stops. "Wanna taste the goods, Buckles?"

* * *

><p><strong>If you're ready for PURE SMUT in the next chapter, say "I'm ready" in the review box ;)<strong>

**On an unrelated note, who wants a Sera vs Adaar spar? Hmmm?**


	12. The Chapter With Smut

Everyone, here it is. I hope I don't disappoint, and happy Valentine's day (aka single awareness day)

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><p>Embarrassing as it is, the hint of cleavage, so close, blocks any coherent word from leaving Adaar's lips. She nods stiffly instead, to which Sera's pride swells at her speechlessness and finally pulls at the lace which comes undone instantly.<p>

The tunic sags and it isn't long before Adaar pushes herself up into a sitting position and starts curiously peppering short kisses into the newly exposed skin that she's never seen before. She slowly moves her way up, lips ghosting from the soft rise of Sera's breasts to the length of her neck, until she finally finds her lips.

Every hot breath that heats her skin further fans the growing ache in Sera's loins. When Adaar's fingers begin to tease the skin under her tunic, Sera raises her arms and lets the qunari remove it in one smooth motion and toss it somewhere over her head. The soft light accentuates the definition of her abdomen nicely as Adaar's calloused hands run over the ridges of muscles, feeling the taut expanse with an admiration akin to a sculptor shaping a prized statue. Strong arms, earned through countless fired arrows and bar fights, complement a set of equally slender yet strong shoulders that Adaar is more than eager to feel under her touch.

A sense of familiarity arises, and Adaar silently hopes that she's not dreaming this time. If she is, she's afraid she might go mad and make whatever demon behind this wish it had never come to be.

Sera shrugs off the straps of her plain bra and lets Adaar continue in her exploration of her torso as she starts to unbutton the Tal-Vashoth mage's shirt that's seldom not layered under her armored coat.

Sera takes the opportunity to push Adaar down, relishing the sight of broad, rigid shoulders that continue into hefty looking arms that flex slightly as Adaar holds her lean waist. Sera's caramel eyes trail down to a solid, muscular stomach covered by a layer of lightly freckled gray.

Sera frowns a little when she sees that Adaar's face isn't the only part of her that's been abused by her years of mercenary work. She reassures herself by remembering that she's here now, and anyone who even thinks of hurting her Buckles will get an entire quiver's worth of arrows in their backsides.

_Mine_, she thinks, as her tongue delves into Adaar's mouth to meet the qunari's own. _All mine._

A pair of large hands reach behind Sera's back to unclasp her bra and the garment falls. Upon the sight of Sera's perky, firm breasts, one thought flies through Adaar's head:

"Holy shit, why did I wait this long to take you to bed?"

"Beats me," Sera shrugs and hooks her fingers under Adaar's bra. She pulls at it, but it's too tight and doesn't budge much. "Stupid tit thing. Why's it so tight, huh? Gotta let your girls breathe." She tries one last big pull that yanks Adaar forward in a sudden motion, yet the bra still won't loosen up enough to pull it over the qunari's head. The frown in Sera's face is almost big enough to reach her jaw. "Fuck this, I'm getting-"

"There's a clasp behind it, love." Adaar smirks amusedly at the elf's frustration. "And that's easy for you to say. You're not the one wearing metal on your chest. Let me tell you that-"

"Buckles." Sera unclasps the bra with one hand and throws it off, impressively not getting it caught in Adaar's horns. "Shut it."

Their mouths come together like two magnets. Sera's hands greedily run over hot gray skin and the taut muscles underneath, slowly kissing her way down from Adaar's neck, one of the few parts of her that's smooth without marks of past wounds, down to her stomach. All the while, her hands knead her lover's breasts gently, rolling her peaks with her fingers. Her smaller, yet very skilled fingers.

Lips lightly brush over Adaar's navel, then further down, until Sera finally unbuttons the qunari's pants and pulls them down to reveal a pair of purple undies. A wicked smirk appears as Sera sees a wet spot at it's center.

"An eye for an eye, Sera." Adaar says, her confident grin barely concealing the lustful glint in her forest green eyes. "A pair of pants for another."

Adaar then slips her fingers under Sera's pants, giving her rump a fine squeeze as she slides her pants off.

She eyes the bright red piece of fabric intently, the only thing standing between her and taking the elf into sweet, carnal bliss.

Tongues come together in a swirl of hazy desire and the qunari almost squeaks in surprise as Sera lightly thumbs through her undergarments. The motion continues as Sera gives Adaar a most arrogant smirk before her teeth takes a little bit of the skin of her neck. Adaar takes a sharp intake of breath as the thumb presses down hard enough to pressure her nub, so deliciously sensitive from her arousal.

When Sera's fingers finally slip under after what seems like much too long for Adaar, the qunari gladly pulls her head back to allow her neck to be ravished by teeth and tongue. And then the first touch comes, an experimental stroke of the finger across her wetness, slick with heat. Sera continues marking the mage's neck, biting and nibbling right at the center of her throat, where the mark will surely be seen by all by the time they're done. Nimble fingers draw circles around Adaar's clit, far enough to tease yet close enough to draw a pleasured hum that sounds low in the mage's throat.

Adaar's tongue grows slack in their kiss as her brain grows foggier with every long stroke. Sera teases the entrance, noticing the nearly pleading look in Adaar's eyes. Chuckling, she times the first slow thrust inside with a purposeful stroke across the Tal-Vashoth's clit. Adaar breaks her silence and gasps into Sera's mouth, literally taking her breath away.

Sera's fingers are so different from Adaar's larger ones. Perhaps it's the teasing, but the pleasure builds up a pressure in her gut in a needy rush.

Sera finds her good places as quickly as she picks locks. A pull of the finger here and a curl there, and Adaar feels a moan rising up in the back of her throat as Sera hits a particularly sweet spot inside her.

But to Adaar's dismay, Sera chooses this moment to pull her hand back. The look on the qunari's face is enough to make her feel sorry.

Sera rises up and gives Adaar's lips a short, sweet kiss. "You better shut the window."

"Why?" Adaar asks, softly. "We're so high up I doubt anyone could hear us if we screamed at the top of our lungs."

"Fine then." Sera grins, hooking her fingers over the only piece of clothing Adaar's wearing and tugging it down.

Spreading the qunari's legs, Sera presses soft kisses to the inside of Adaar's thighs, so agonizingly close to her center that the qunari bites her lip in anticipation, an action that doesn't go unnoticed to the archer.

A breath ghosts over the glistening wetness. Sera takes one last look at the imploring gaze in Adaar's eyes, taking in the sight of the Inquisitor, flushed and needy under her touch.

Sera licks her lips, knowing what the sight does to Adaar's already lust-addled state. She won't admit it, but Adaar almost whimpers at the sight.

The first stroke of tongue on her wet flesh sends a rush of pleasured heat through her spine. Sera tongues her slowly, tormentingly licking the dripping folds and enjoying the feeling of hands entangled in her short blonde hair, all while her tongue tastes everywhere except for the neglected clit.

When she's finally had enough of teasing, Sera runs her tongue over the nub, gaining a gasp from her Inquisitor. It's not long before she manages to earn a low moan in response to the flick of her tongue and she decides she wants to hear more of it.

It's not long before a series of well timed strokes and sucks manage to coax the sweetest moans from Adaar's lips, sounds she never knew she could make. Sera jostles the sensitive bundle of nerves expertly as she feels a slight pull in her scalp when the fingers weaved in her hair tighten.

The pressure in her builds up like a dam threatening to burst with every suckle of Sera's lips, every flick that brings her that much closer to bliss. Had she been in a clearer state of mind, Adaar would have noticed that Sera's licking the letters of her name into her, so typical of the elf, making her shudder with every hot lick.

She feels the heat under her skin, the ecstasy flowing through her blood, and it's with a series of short, intense licks that goads a long, guttural moan that marks the end of her wits.

Mind-numbing pleasure crashes down on her like a wave, intoxicating every nerve in her body with sweet bliss. Adaar swears she's seeing stars when Sera continues to pleasure her through the aftershocks of her orgasm, milking her of every remaining sliver of coherent thought in her head.

Sera raises her head and puts her fingers back to work as she presses her lips against Adaar's. "Mine." She husks in between the kiss, relishing the sight of her handiwork: her freshly fucked Inquisitor, her Buckles, splayed on her back and naked with flushed cheeks and her chest rising and falling with ragged breaths.

"All yours." Adaar breathes, returning the kiss. She grabs Sera by the ass and pulls her over to place open mouthed kisses on her jaw. Straddling the Tal-Vashoth, Sera feels a knee applying gentle pressure to her core.

"Just fuck me already, you arse."

Adaar pulls down the pair of panties, completely soaked through with Sera's arousal. "Very well, then."

Fingers drag roughly over Sera's wetness, without so much as a second of teasing. Adaar admits that she'd love to torment the elf, make her melt before she takes her completely, but Andraste, she just wants to see her come undone right this moment.

Adaar's fingers are long and wide enough to rub the entirety of Sera's slit thoroughly. The callouses on her digits only bring more delicious friction, goading Sera to push her hips forward to seek more.

Adaar wastes no time in giving Sera what she wants. She gives Sera a little time to adjust to the tip of her finger, quite a bit larger than her own, which slowly pushes inside before pulling out and pushing farther in every time.

When Adaar's fingers start thumbing her clit and thrusting inside her with a steady pace, Sera can't help but utter a small moan at the digit massaging her walls in just the right places. She moves her hips to meet Adaar's thrusts, and even with the thumb on her clit, everything seems both too much and not enough.

Adaar's heart beats like a drum in her chest at the sight of Sera rolling her hips to take more of her finger inside. She pulls out, adding in an extra digit. A throaty moan escapes Sera's lips as a trickle of sweat rolls tantalizingly down between the valley of her breasts and to her tightening abdomen. She's flushed to the very tips of her long ears and Adaar can't resist taking the tip between her teeth to nibble and suckle as Sera wraps her arms around her bare shoulders to steady herself.

The constant pressure on her clit, the fingers fucking her into a heady haze, it's all too good and she wants more and more, despite knowing she's that close to the edge.

"Ah... B-Buckles..." She moans the name breathlessly like a prayer, clenching impossibly tight around Adaar's digits. "Herah..."

At the sound of Sera moaning her name, Adaar stops the movements of her fingers. Sera opens her mouth to protest, but she doesn't get the chance- Adaar flips Sera over, disregarding the surprised expression in the elf's face.

Then she leans down and unceremoniously lifts up Sera's knees to perch them on her shoulders. Leisurely, she plants two soft kisses to either side of the insides of Sera's creamy thighs, so slow and deliberate, before her mouth finally gives her attention to the dripping center between her legs.

Her tongue draws a long, hard lick along the slit, drawing a sharp breath from Sera as she licks through her folds with every intention to hear her name sweetly moaned once again. She gives no time for the pleasure racking through Sera's veins to cool down, flicking and sucking and rolling the elf's nub without leniency.

"B-Buckles!" The name is moaned once more as Sera arches her hips and grips the bedsheets between her fingers desperately.

A pair of shaky hands wrap their fingers the base of Adaar's horns. They feel rough horns and the cold clasps of iron, remnants from Adaar's time before she became a Tal-Vashoth, and they clutch tightly and then pull. Hard.

Adaar yelps in surprise as she's suddenly yanked forward and she plants her hands on the sheets as Sera arches her back to seek more and more and tugs harder.

The iron clasps dig uncomfortably into her palm, but the only thing Sera feels is absolute euphoria as her vision very nearly blurs and her jaw goes slack. Honeyed moans and whimpers escape her when the pleasure is finally too much to handle and she comes in a shuddering cry.

Adaar feels the grip on her horns loosen as the sweeps of her tongue carry Sera through the aftershocks of her orgasm. Sera's moans slowly fade away and the tight hold of her hands release. Red marks from the ridges of Adaar's horns and the iron clasps decorating them are pressed into Sera's palms and fingers.

As Sera lay panting and sated, finding the willpower to recover her voice, Adaar places a gentle kiss on the wet flesh she sought to please. Then she collapses, her head resting on the rising and falling of Sera's stomach as the archer tries to regain her breath.

"Shit." Sera sighs dreamily, her hand absentmindedly brushing Adaar's cheek. "We should do this more, yeah?"

Adaar leans up and kisses her, simple and chaste. "I'm glad you think so too."

They lay there in silence for a while, calming their breaths and basking in their warm embrace. They hear the faint sounds of clanging metal, drilling soldiers, chirping birds.

Small kisses pepper the hinge of Sera's jaw to the tips of her hears and back to the bridge of her nose. Sera notices the glow of post-coital bliss in Adaar's forest green eyes, the softening of her harsh facial features. An adoring smile slowly creeps its way onto the qunari's face as she sighs pleasantly at the comfortable heat of her lover's body.

"I'll make it up to you, Buckles. Promise."

"Are you talking about the fantastic head I gave you or...?"

Suddenly, Sera feels as naked as her body currently is. She pulls up the blankets in an effort to cover herself from Adaar's imploring gaze.

"Sera?" Comes Adaar's voice, seeking and honest.

"It's all weird, havin' anyone giving me all this just like that." She says, clutching awkwardly at the blanket. "Used to have to do everything by myself."

"I know," Adaar gives Sera's temple a peck. "But I'm here now-"

Sera feigns puking and makes a choked noise as she does so. The blush on her face only grows hotter, though, betraying her reaction.

"Hey, I was being romantic." Adaar pouts.

Sera cuts her off with a kiss, deep and firm and full of promise. "I'll make it up to you. Period."

"I order you not to." Adaar counters, yawning as she lets Sera nuzzle into the crook of her shoulder. "I'm pulling rank on you, soldier."

Sera snorts derisively. "Ever heard of me followin' rules?"

"Good point." Adaar says, her arm cozily wrapped around Sera's bare waist. She kisses her forehead and closes her eyes, chin resting comfortably on the top of the elf's head.

Sera doesn't fall asleep, though her eyelids are getting heavy. Instead, she recalls the set of flasks in her room, the ones that have been sitting in the dust for way too long. She silently vows to put them to good use again next morning.

She stopped using them after she suffered a bad burn from a little accident two years back, but she supposes that a little pain is unavoidable in her line of work.

Yes, with this up her sleeve, she'll definitely put an arrow between the eyes of anyone who even thinks of hurting her Buckles, no matter how many burns she has to endure.

* * *

><p><strong>I've received the prompts for strap ons and Adaar carrying Sera to bed, and they'll be up in a separate one shot some time this week :)<strong>

**If you liked it, put "woof" in the review box ;)**


	13. That's Got To Hurt

Sleep looms over both women's minds as they lie with their limbs entangled on the sheets, spent and and exhausted. Adaar's eyes have been closed for quite a while, yet the light brushes of her thumb on Sera's waist lets the archer know that she's still awake.

"This Knight-Whatever thing, what's it do?"

"It's battle magic." Adaar replies, yawning as her eyelids feel heavier by the second. "It's useful. And really fucking badass, if I do say so myself." She smirks tiredly.

"I don't like seein' you get knocked around like this afternoon." Sera softly caresses the hinge of Adaar's jaw, careful not to hurt the spot where Cassandra rammed the hilt of her sword into that afternoon. She sighs dreamily. "Though you're all big and _phwoar _and Cassandra's smaller but damn, she's well fit."

"What can I say?" Adaar shrugs, although her chest flutters at the gentle touch of Sera's fingers at the sore spot of her jaw. "It's hard to concentrate on not getting hit when Cassandra's doing that glare of hers. As you say, _woof_."

Sera giggles and lightly slaps Adaar's shoulder.

"And that short Commander whatsername, the friggin' anal one." Sera frowns and her hand tenses for the fraction of a second. "Don't like her scrawny arse yellin' at you all morning while she's sitting on a chair bein' all commandery."

Adaar chuckles and kisses the tip of Sera's nose. "I'm sure you'd like to order me around, have me follow your every whim?"

Adaar doesn't expect what Sera says next.

"And that poof-and-you're-gone thing and that glowy green big-arse sword, it's right scary, it is."

A weight drops in Adaar's stomach and her face falls. Scary? Many times, the word has been used to describe her, and for good reasons. People see the horns, the height, the magic, and they see a monster. And then there's the things she did, things she's not proud of, from the times before her joining the Inquisition. Those parts, she'd like to lock up and forget. She's accepted the fact that the word will always be associated with her, that children will run away at the sight of her, but Sera?

"You... Think I'm scary?" She asks, a slight tremble in her voice.

"'Course not, you're my Buckles." Sera giggles so innocently, so earnestly, that Adaar almost heaves a sigh of relief. "Some people do, but they get my boot up their backholes."

Indeed, she can't ever imagine Adaar's hands ever doing something she'd classify as scary, not the hands that heal up her cuts and sores after battle, the hands that so lovingly roamed her body not too long ago. To make this point, she takes one of those hands, so much larger than her's, and places gentle kisses upon each calloused finger. She trails down to a wide palm and further down to her wrist with lingering touches of her lips.

Then her lips touch something rough yet fleshy, and she pulls the hand away to see thick lines, uneven and deep on the Tal-Vashoth's skin. A glance to the side, and she notices the same thing on the other wrist. She feels Adaar flinch at the contact and looks up to meet forest green eyes that hold back something unidentifiable, unpleasant. Sera's chest tightens at the sight of yet another sign of former injury on her lover's skin and she wonders why she never noticed it before.

_Oh, duh._ She thinks. It's the first time she's seen Adaar without her clothes, and it wouldn't surprise her if it's the first time anyone's seen her out of her armor. The qunari had always retreated subtly to a secluded spot every time she needed to change or bathe. Sera first thought that perhaps Adaar was just a private person, or maybe shy, but it occurs to her now- _Was she hiding this, all this time?_

And just like that, she bared all of her tonight. Perhaps out of trust? Sera doesn't know.

"They chained me to the walls." Adaar explains, breaking the silence. Her voice is subdued, vulnerable and her eyes are too distant to Sera's liking. "I pulled and pulled, but they wouldn't come off. Escaped before they could cuff my neck."

Anger boils in the pit of Sera's belly and she lip stiffens. Her brow arches in displeasure, but the grip on Adaar's wrist only softens. "Then they fuckin' got what they deserved."

Adaar weakly smiles. "I thought you would grill me if you found out I used blood magic to escape."

"Well, you're not like those bloody shits, demoning up and all that." Of course, Adaar is always her only exception. "Besides, you only used it once, yeah?"

Adaar doesn't answer. She just holds her elf, and she swears she can feel the marks on her wrists start to sting all over again, with hot and fresh blood mingling with fearful sweat.

Sera feels the large, strong Inquisitor tremble in her hold, and she meets her lips against hers so gently that the blankness and the distance in Adaar's eyes slowly fade away as the fond touch of lips say the words that the elf doesn't need to speak anymore.

In the morning, Sera's limbs feel so pleasantly heavy that she can't muster up the willpower to get up from the bed. Her own little corner in the tavern doesn't even have a surface that can remotely be called one- the only place where she can lie down and sleep is the lengthy, narrow, hard furniture that she likes to think of as a cross of a couch and a bed. Not even the piles of pillows she has piled up there can hide the scratchy sheets.

Maybe that's why the thought of getting up is that revolting to the elf. After all, Adaar's bed is much bigger and softer than her's. The sheets are much smoother, the air doesn't smell like cheap alcohol, and Herah Adaar is naked underneath her.

That last part definitely catches Sera's attention.

Her Inquisitor has her arm slung over her waist, her chest rising and falling with the gentle rhythm of her breathing. Couple this with the distant sound of chirping birds and the sunlight seeping through the windows, and the task of getting up seems like an even greater challenge.

It's so, so unfair that she has something to do with Iron Bull and Dorian this morning.

So Sera buries her face further in the warm crook of Adaar's neck, hoping that neither Dorian nor the Iron Bull is busy this morning. Especially since she's planning on whisking them away without telling them beforehand. Then again, she would still do that anyway, even if the two men were occupied.

It's so very uncharacteristic of her, but Sera lightly lifts one of Adaar's long, muscled arms and moves it away. Hell, Cassandra and Vivienne and even Solas would be proud of her for doing this, but they're not going to find out.

Inky looks at the elf curiously as she rises, naked as the day she was born. The poor hound had come looking for Sera after she finished thrashing Cullen's new recruits around during evening training and decided to sleep at the foot of the bed after the Inquisitor, groggy with sleep, let her into the cozy room with a groggy smile and promptly got back to bed.

It takes five minutes for Sera to find her clothes, scattered around the room after their activities the previous night, and another two to dress herself. She wonders how her knickers wound up all the way to the bottom of the stairs and gives Inky's ear a good scratch.

"Keep the big girl company, 'kay?" She whispers to the mabari, earning an understanding look of obedience in response.

Then her eyes fall upon her precious Buckles, whose bare body is half hidden under the covers, and Sera gives her brow a kiss goodbye.

She fetches her bow and quiver of arrows from Adaar's desk and tiptoes in a very cartoonish manner to the stairs.

"Leaving in the morning before I wake up?" Comes Adaar's mock saddened voice. "That's cold, love. Really cold."

Sera stops in her tracks and turns her head to see Adaar sitting up, eyes still foggy with sleep and hair mussed up. "Meetin' Krem for some eats. Man knows how to grill them meats."

The side of Adaar's lips rise slightly. "Come back to bed?"

The morning light warms Adaar's dark features and sifts through her white mane of hair, which she runs her fingers through to tame the messiness. As she does this, her biceps flex and her shoulder muscles roll enticingly, leading Sera to gulp as her resolve starts to crumble.

Sera shakes her head to free herself from her lustful thoughts. Never in a million years did she think she would ever do this, but she turns around and marches down the stairs. "Maker, Buckles, a girl needs more than pussy juice to live!"

At the sound of the door shutting, Adaar hovers her hand by her face and releases a breath. She sniffs and looks at Inky, who's making herself comfortable in Sera's side of the bed.

"Does my breath stink or something?"

* * *

><p>Archery targets are propped up by the stone walls, hanging from tree branches and sticking up from the ground. The soldiers haven't had time to repurpose the area, surrounded by walls and taken over by vines and weeds, but that makes it perfect for what Sera intends to do.<p>

"Sera," Dorian crosses his arms curiously as he eyes the area. "Is there a particular reason why you brought us here?"

"Sure," Sera says, taking out a flask of red liquid from her ratty old pack. "You're gonna patch me up if I get too burned up." Then she looks at Bull. "You. Well, you bring me back if I mess this shit up. And don't tell people 'bout this." She turns her gaze towards Dorian's direction. "Buckles too, or I'll tell people you're walkin' funny 'cause you got Bull's rod up-"

"Because I injured my leg back in the Storm Coast and it's taking it's sweet, sweet time to heal." Dorian interrupts, with the excuse that he's practiced to the point of perfection.

Iron Bull just chuckles. "And what about you, sis?" He wriggles his eyebrows suggestively. "Harding went to your room last night, said she owed you a drink, but you were nowhere to be found."

Sera gives him a crooked grin. "Yeah, Lady Herald's still got needs, y'know?" Then she opens the flask and pours it over her head.

She bursts into flames.

Much later, Sera makes sure not to set her arm down as she watches from the roof. Dorian managed to reduce the nasty, open burn into no more than a wide and angry red mark than runs from her bicep to her forearm. She'll pass it off as a bad scald and anyone who knows her and her antics won't even have second thoughts about it.

But Maker, it still stings like a bitch.

Nevertheless, she watches with intrigue as Blackwall and Adaar trade hits, with the qunari unleashing attack after attack with both sword and magic and Blackwall holding his tall shield vehemently to survive the assault. Periodically, the warrior rushes Adaar when her swing is too wide, dishing out efficient stabs and slashes of his own in the process.

When the practice swords are finally returned back to the weapon racks, Blackwall wipes the sweat from his brow and pats Adaar's shoulder amiably. "Good job, lass. Just remember to keep your guard up and watch out for counters and you'll be fine."

"I'll keep that in mind." Adaar says between her harsh breaths. "Any more wounds on my face and I'll have to start wearing a sack over my head."

"You get banged up some more and some bastard gets an arrow in the dangle bag."

Adaar turns around and gives the thief a welcome nod. "Nice of you to join our conversation, Sera."

"Make sure to follow up on that threat, eh?" Blackwall chuckles and ruffles Sera's hair, which she doesn't even attempt to smooth back afterwards. "I don't think I can handle seeing this poor lass take another one to the face."

Sera just laughs that little mischievous laugh of hers in response, and heads towards the weapon rack. Rows of swords, axes, daggers and a variety of other practice weapons are mounted in neat rows and stacks. She takes two daggers from the bottom of the rack and twirls them both in her hands. She smirks as she feels two confused gazes at her back. "One more round?"

"Is that an innuendo?" Adaar chortles and heads towards the rack, where she pulls out a longsword.

"Butterin' up Coryphyshit's goons won't get 'em to jump in bed with you." Sera deflects the words easily enough and heads towards the center of the courtyard. "You'd better not try it."

"This'll be good." Blackwall mutters to a nearby Harding. The Warden then proceeds to lean casually on the wall of the tavern, waiting for the show to start.

The first seconds are quiet, tense. Neither Adaar nor Sera moves, both standing their ground far enough from each other. Adaar is wary, and for a good reason- Sera is almost never pressed to a melee fight during their battles, but she's started and joined quite a few bar fights during their travels together and not once did she disappoint.

And then there's the matter with the practice weapons. They're dulled, yes, but they still hurt. This isn't a problem with Adaar's heavy armor, but Sera's clothes are definitely not up to the task of protecting her against blunted metal.

Adaar lowers her guard. "Sera, perhaps you should change-"

In a flash, Sera closes in and takes a jab at Adaar's exposed face. The Inquisitor raises her hand and conjures a barrier to protect herself, but the hit never comes. Instead, a dagger slices through the air, sailing towards Adaar's throat and stopping just before cold metal comes into contact with hot skin.

It's a feint, and a very nice one. But it's not good enough, Sera discovers, when she feels the blade of a longsword against her rib. Adaar gives her a playful grin, which is replied with one of Sera's own.

"Y'know if this was real and all, I'd be chokin' on my own guts but you'd be dead, right?"

"Yeah, but you'll never hurt little old me, would you?"

And they begin exchanging hits. Sera is nimble enough to evade Adaar's swings with her longsword, yet she's far from being used to fighting a mage in short range. Several times, Adaar manages to distract her with her sword and follow up with salvos of shock and fire that she pull just before they hit. It's just enough to make her point yet obviously not enough to hurt.

Of course, Sera has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. She's quick, her attacks seem to be completely unpredictable, without a visible rhythm, and her attacks come from angles that shouldn't even be possible.

And then it happens; Sera moves in for an attack just as she dodges a slash to the side, and she steps on Adaar's toes, simultaneously attempting to jab the hilt of her dagger onto Adaar's jaw. But Adaar aims for a counter, and ice starts to crystalize in her palm as she drives it to the side of Sera's head.

Now, it's only a matter of who hits first.

A cripplingly hard blow to the side, and Adaar's breath is knocked away from her lungs as she lands face first into the ground. She coughs at the dust clouding in her face. Inky pants happily as she stands on Adaar's back like a hunter standing over a prized game. The hound looks at Sera expectantly, as if waiting for a treat for taking down the large, horned beast.

The soldiers wince. "Damn, that's got to hurt." Harding says from a distance.

When Adaar finally figures out what just happened, she gives Inky her best scolding face. But alas, looking intimidating while one side of her face is caked with dirt is difficult, especially if her own lover's dog is proudly standing on her back, without a trace of guilt in her black canine eyes. "Hey, this is how you repay the one who pays for all your food, grooming, and a bunch of other things that I don't need to mention?"

"Someone's gettin' extra dinner tonight." Sera grins down at Adaar while she pets the mabari's neck affectionately. Inky barks enthusiastically in response and nuzzles her palm.

"And I suppose that extra dinner is coming from my plate?" Adaar sighs forlornly.

"Aw, don't get jealous, you horny tit," Sera sticks her tongue out. "You'll get some of this tonight." She says, turning around and comedically wiggling her butt right in front of Adaar's face.

A few stifled sounds of amusement escape the crowd.

"Horned tit, Sera. Horned."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna ride you up somethin' fierce." Sera says, leaping on top of the qunari's back. Inky scurries away and Adaar makes a sound of surprise as Sera makes herself comfortable on her shoulders and grabs the wide base of her horns. "Move it!"

The soldiers stare horrifically at the sight of a scrawny blonde elf riding the Inquisitor and using her horns like the reins of a beast of labor. To make it worse, Sera lightly kicks Adaar's side before she whoops and pulls at the horns none too lightly, nearly pulling the large woman off balance. The Tal-Vashoth is rendered just about speechless as she struggles to keep herself upright with the thrashing on her shoulders and in the frenzy, she steps inside a poorly placed wooden bucket by a rickety fence.

And then she trips and finds the ground approaching her face at an alarmingly fast rate. Once more, her face connects with the ground, and Sera is on her back, safe and comfortable.

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Comes a familiar gruff voice that Adaar hasn't heard in a long time.

"Hah, that's not what the big girl said last night!" Sera exclaims proudly and puffs out her chest. She gives Adaar's butt a hearty slap that seems to echo in the now silent courtyard, one that gains her several odd looks from the soldiers.

The source of the voice soon makes himself visible as he pushes himself into the center of the courtyard, not far from where Adaar's face is still planted on the ground. He's a tall, muscular qunari with a dark stubble on his strong, square jaw. His horns, located on the sides of his head, look like they'd be quite big if they weren't cut off near the base. A long horizontal scar runs from his brow and beyond his lips. A shield that's as wide as Varric's body hangs from his back while a long broadsword is sheathed on his hip and white dreadlocks are tied into a high ponytail.

He would look intimidating, if it wasn't for the absolutely horrified look on his face.

"You, little lady, get off! Quick!" He yells almost hysterically. "Not the horns!"

Sera laughs in response and sticks out her tongue at the stranger. She gives Adaar's rump a good squeeze, further thickening the silence in the air. And

Two other qunari follow in his steps. One, a horned female, has long straight horns that point backwards and braided white hair, clad in heavy iron with a large two-handed axe on her back. The second one is a spiral horned male in leather armor whose stubble is barely even visible. His hair, which frames his boyish face, flows freely down his mid-back, where a bow and quiver stands ready. Curiously, he has a pen and paper in hand.

Several more follow behind, but they're hidden behind the three, who immediately charge forward when they see Adaar picking herself off from the ground and coughing from the dust.

"Taashe!" The qunari with dreadlocks says to the female as he runs ahead of them. "You go for the left! I'll handle the neck!"

Taashe nods and swerves sharply to Adaar's left. "Got it, Shok!"

"Kaariss!" Shok says to the male. "You go for the right!"

Sera watches dumbly as Shok just about flings her from Adaar's back and on to the ground. Being so light-footed, she lands gracefully and easily, but even Sera wonders what the hell is going on when she finds Adaar in a chokehold, courtesy of Shok, with her left and right arms twisted behind her back by both Tasshe and Kaariss.

Adaar's face is contorted in shock as she makes choked noises. The trio drags the poor Inquisitor until she's far away from Sera, who watches wide-eyed at the spectacle, and they finally drop her roughly on the ground.

The other qunari begin gathering in a circle around the Herald warily as Adaar takes a deep, gasping breath and coughs repeatedly as she pushes herself up from her elbows. "Fuck you, Shok." She says, between hard breaths. "Just like you to embarrass me in front of my girlfriend."

At the sound of the word 'girlfriend', the circle of qunari freeze and a thick silence falls over the area.

"What?" Shok dumbly asks, as if someone had just told him that nugs had taken over Highever.

"Hey, you." Sera saunters into the circle confidently, one elf in the midst of around ten qunari, and looks Shok straight in the eye. "Hands off the goods."

"I didn't know Herah was into girls." Comes a murmur from the group of qunari. "Or elves."

"I didn't know Herah was into _anyone_." Taashe says, a numb look of disbelief on her sharp face.

Adaar sees the confusion in the way Sera looks back and forth between the new arrivals, and she coughs. "Let me introduce all of you." She says, slinging an arm around Sera's shoulder. "Sera, this is the Valo-Kas, my mercenary company. The big guy is Shok, short for Shokrakar. Likes to make horrible dad jokes, and he's the big hat." She looks at Taashe. "This is Taashe, resident hardass and hardcore dragon nerd."

Taashe blushes silently, but says nothing.

"That's Kaariss, our loved archer and self proclaimed poet." Adaar pauses and raises her fingers, counting down the number of her former teammates. "Where's Ashaad, Taarlok, Katoh and Sata-Kas?"

Shok raises his eyebrow slightly as he exchanges strange looks with Kaariss and Taashe. "Uh, they're still with the lady with the eyeball armor."

"I'll find them soon, then." Adaar says, before she raises her head proudly. "And this is my girlfriend, Sera."

The qunari gather around Sera, talking amongst themselves in qunlat as they closely examine the elf like some sort of foreign object. Sera swats a hand away when it tries to touch her pointed ear.

Before anyone has the chance to comment, the circle breaks and lets one more qunari through. Dressed in a humble purple robe with her silver hair tied in a low bun is a woman whose horns seem like they were cut off messily a long time ago. Around her lips are scars, long endured but never faded, from the needles and threads that forced her mouth to close forever. The threads are gone now, but the scars remain.

But yet there's a kindness in her eyes, in the laugh lines on her slightly wrinkled face. When her warm eyes fall upon Adaar's frame, she breaks out into a run and she doesn't stop until she finds the younger qunari in her arms. She opens her mouth, like she wants to utter kind and welcome words, but Sera sees that there's no tongue inside.

She remembers what Adaar said to her about qunari mages, long ago. What were they called? It takes a moment, but the word soon becomes clear in her head—_Saarebas_. Dangerous thing.

* * *

><p>So, readers, why do you think the Valo-Kas crew tried to restrain Adaar? Put in your theories, and I might use some of the most interesting ones...<p>

Also, who wants to see The Big One aka the giant nug? Do you think Adaar and Sera should finish their spar next time... with more "preferrable" outcomes? ;)


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